Final Fantasy VII The Novel
by gato de la muerta
Summary: A new action-packed version of Final Fantasy VII with events based on the game. Rated R for language and graphic violence.
1. Chapter One

FINAL FANTASY 7- THE NOVEL  
  
DISCLAIMER-- I do not own any Final Fantasy ware nor do I have any affiliations with SquareEnix.  
  
**CHAPTER ONE**  
  
Nibelheim.  
A scorched land overrun with two battling armies. A once proud city now abdicates its glory to the destruction of Midgarian and Wutain forces. Platinum gunners race across the green fields in pursuit of the opponent. Military might crushes the magnificence and beauty of the Nibellian hillsides, raining heartless death on all citizens. Regular three-striper privates haul their M16s as they doubletime alongside their steel tanks. Their minds are cruel, yet manipulated. They do not see the death they deal not just to the Wutai bastards but to the helpless Nibellians caught in the crossfire; they do not see this. For their almighty president sitting fat and happy on his throne in the nuclear city of Midgar has shrouded them into a degradation that has consumed their humility. They brandish their rifles and fire with expressionless faces.  
The Western forces are no different. Supreme commander Master Godo enforces the same harsh treatment on his people as does President ShinRa, his opponent. Why the two superpowers do not coincide in cooperation is answered in the very reason they are bashing their brains out on Nibelheim's fields. Hidden deep within the surrounding mountains is rumored an ancient monolith of vast resources one could only dream of. A source of income for the two giants and exactly the spark to start off a full-scale war. The citizens and military personnel on both sides were undoubtedly shocked by the unexpected proposals of war and refused to licit their approvals.   
Dark and terrible times resulted from this response as both ShinRa and Godo slaughtered their own people and then belittled them for their "stupidity". Arenas were set up in the civic centers of Midgar at which bloody beheadings of countless men and women were issued. Inside the Grand Pagoda of Wutai, Godo himself ripped bodies open and hung the dead carcasses in his suites. Both powers rounded every male capable of using a gun or sword and donned him a uniform. Blue on the Midgar; orange on the West.   
Jargon and manipulation immediately followed the surge of new personnel. The men were told of nothing but hate and misfortune towards the opposing side. Those who failed to acknowledge the emotions were chopped into bits and nailed to the walls above the beds over the other soldiers as a symbol to the other cadets; a foreboding symbol.  
Soon the cards were set and ShinRa and Godo were prepared to duel a sudden death on the other.  
All who stood their ground were to be cut down.  
The winner take all.  
  
Cloud Strife brushed away a fly from his forehead, getting a thick mixture of sweat on his palm. His uniform was damp and pressed tightly across his chest, the sweat killing him as it slowly trickled down his back. The fly returned to its nest right above his left eyebrow, and he let it be. What the hell did it matter anyway? He was dying out here. It was hot, humid, and for some reason swampy. He grew up in this wonderful city and he never remembered it being swampy...or for that matter being so damned humid. The sweat was starting to get unbearable, and he considered standing up and adjusting his clothes; however he knew that that wasn't quite the right thing to do at this present stage.  
He was hiding underneath a crudely-made trench that stretched a couple of miles north to south just outside Hanover County in central Nibelheim. The samurai were very close to his and his squad's position, and snipers were most likely everywhere. A shot in the head was more drastic to him than having to endure a slow, continuous trail of sweat down his back and legs; so, he burrowed himself deeper underneath the trench.   
A flashy movement occured out of the corner of his eye, and he saw Private Simms edge under cover of the trench towards his position. He stopped and turned to another private who was shivering in the mud, tears streaming from his cheeks. He crouched lower under the trench and spoke a few words with him.  
Cloud sighed and laid down his M16, his palms were becoming too slick to hold it. He rubbed them on his trousers which had quite a stunning silver stripe down the seam of it. He always thought this was a neat feature to the uniform which was a rare positive connotation to the military, and he wished he could keep his uniform when he was done with the services.   
That thought then transitioned into why he signed up as an elite officer for ShinRa's SOLDIER program. He was forced into the army of course- every man was. But ShinRa himself selected him as a worthy candidate for a Captain ranking- a highly acclaimed honor of SOLDIER. Only one rank was higher and Sephiroth had already acquired that position.  
Sephiroth.  
He looked around and saw the great Sephiroth crouched underneath the same trench, muscles tight, sword in hand- he was the only one on Midgar's side without a gun simply because he didn't need one. Cloud looked at him and smiled knowingly. There was a titan if he ever saw one. Sephiroth was a magnificent creature of insurmountable strength. He was agile, lithe. He was at the same time destructive and terrible in his killings. No creature could touch him; they could try and many did...to no avail. Yet, the queer thing about him was that he stalked his prey to the point of insanity and rarely attacked. When he did, though, one desired not to be around when that time came.  
Most people wanted desperately to keep him at arms length and refused to communicate with him; however, Cloud had formed somewhat of a bond with the titan. Something which astounded people but also caused them to admire Captain Strife for his bravery. Over the years of knowing each other Sephiroth and Cloud seemed by most people to have become close friends.  
The fly now was starting to annoy him more so than the antagonizing sweat. He smacked himself on the brow, and the world turned grey for a second then regained focus. The fly escaped the hand; five seconds later, it returned buzzing its wings angrily. "Shit, that hurt," he grumbled angrily and opened his canteen. A third of it was full, and he drank a morsel of that. The water siezed him by the throat as it passed his tongue. He licked his lips and grasped his gun.   
As he gazed at a small hole in the trench, he saw vaguely the wishing well in the center of the streets. Suddenly, a tear flowed out of his right eye. The well brought back haunting memories of a town he once loved for its prosperousness and good-natured citizens. He wondered if the girl he met at that well, the girl he still dreamt about in his bunker, he wondered if she still remembered him. She probably did even though that was six years ago. Back when he found out he had to move to Midgar because of the military situation. He shrugged that memory off and focused instead on her. Tifa was beautiful back then, she damned well was beautiful now; and he wanted anything to see her now.  
As he recalled his visit at the well, Private Simms grabbed his shoulder. Cloud almost fired off his M16.  
"You son-of-a-bitch! Call my name out next time."  
"Sorry, Cap'n, sir. Er, Sephiroth told me to tell you that we are about ready to make our move, sir."  
A look of disbelief came over Cloud's face. He looked up and down the trench at the long line of anticipating and anxious bodies of men who seemed to be seeing their lives flashing before their eyes. "We're...Simms, do you...mean to tell me...that we are going over the edge?"  
Simms nodded gravely. "Yes, sir. I am afraid the time has come. The Great Sephiroth is wondering if you are ready to attempt this."  
Cloud looked toward Sephiroth, and the latter turned his head briefly and returned the gaze. Cloud turned back to the private. "Where to shall we head once our commander sounds the bell?"  
Simms looked to the west, seemingly through the trench wall. "The samurai are hiding in their own crudely-made trench. Right now, they are the last remaining section of Godo's forces. More are coming, but that is at least three days from now." He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. "Now is our time to shine, sir, if we claim central Nibelheim away from General Wataki, we win the war. There unfortunately is only one way to do this."  
Cloud swallowed his saliva bitterly. "Steal their trench."  
Simms nodded gravely. "We outnumber them three-to-one, sir, but..."  
"Don't say that shit, private!" Cloud panted and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "If we must undergo this, then we wil fucking win this thing fair and square! Simms, tell General Sephiroth the time is ripe. That is all!"  
"Yes sir!" Simms saluted and took off.  
Cloud then turned to his men and called them all to him. Most were strangely excited; others looked likely to take a shit in their pants. All were eager, though, to end this battle once and for all. "All right men, the time has come. And what a time it shall be. But don't be scared or hesitant. Just think- Nibelheim is ours once we get rid of these ninjas, and the citizens held hostage in this city will be able to live! We just need to do one more thing- and that is we fight. Men of all ages of future generations to come will look back and say that this was the greatest generation of them all, that we saved a land from evil, that we are the almighty heroes!" The party cheered and smiled for the first time in months. "Whether we live or die, we will always be remembered for our bravery today! Now, let's sieze that goddamned trench!"  
"Yeah!"  
The men crawled hurriedly toward their positions and brandished their guns. Anxiousness melted, temptation flourishing they gazed battleready at the trench's wall before them. Cloud looked over at Sephiroth on the far side, the latter looked back and sounded the bell.  
  
The clouds had departed that morning leaving behind an endless sea of blue. The topaz sun gleamed like a gold coin in the sea, and its radiant shafts of light enhanced the color of everything crawling on the fields. The greeness of the fields were enlightened, the brick buildings of the city were enriched, the sense of color substituting for the prescence of silence below on the ground.   
Truly a day of heaven.  
Not a sound stirred until the whistle blew, then the ants poured out of their mound, hungrily absorbing the color and firing their anger out on an obsolescent foe.  
  
As the first wave of Midgarians transcended the wall, a bullet snapped the neck off of Cpl Hodgins sending his head flying back into the trench and his body following after it. Walters and Mitchell had their stomachs split in two, blood coming out of three holes in each body. They unfortunately survived the bullets and now were consumed in pain. Their voices rang sharp and clear in bloodcurdling shrieks. Five other corporals received a fatal wound at the same time- two in the groin, three in the head. The same gunner sent a .22 caliber straight into the eye of Sgt Hickum who crashed into Private Mallone. The latter was then rocketed eight times in the gut by a second gunner, and both Midgarians fell into their own blood.  
Cloud ran and ran the whole way, because he knew if he stopped it was over. "Hurry, faster. Move it private! You want to live, don't you?" He shouted at his companions and winced when a bullet drilled itself through the neck of Sgt Jenners, followed by two in each eye, and another in his nose. The battered head fell off and was squashed underneath its body.  
As if the bullets weren't enough a shell exploded to Cloud's left, sending him facefirst into the sludge. He knew he was a dead man. The trench was a hundred yards to his north, and he crawled as quickly as he could. Suddenly a faceless corpse landed in front of him. The body had a stump of an arm left and half of a leg. Simms found him and shouted, "They're throwing fuckin' grenades, sir!"  
Another blast blew up six bodies to the high heavens. "Hurry, Cap'n!" Simms pulled him up and took off in a separate northerly direction. Three blasts went off at the same time killing twenty people and leaving eighteen surviving with stumps for arms and legs.  
Two more waves of Midgarians had issued out of the trench and followed the first wave, which had already lost ninty men. They too met similar fates as the Wutains riddled them down. A dying Midgarian pulled his last energy and, seeing how close he was, threw a bomb into the trench. Four samurai died in an orange plume, their carcasses splattering the trench's walls. The dying soldier fell into the street as the carcasses exploded. Sixty of the first wave made it to the enemy trench and brandished their swords. However, the Wutains fired their guns at the opposition. Lt. Gordorff 's body went skywards as a shotgun blast ripped apart his testicles, crushed his stomach, ripped open both of his lungs and his heart, and sailed out of his mouth. His bloody body knocked over three soldiers, who were shot dead afterwards, and sailed backwards toppling over four other men until it smacked the street and spilling blood everywhere. In unison, fifteen Midgarians were riddled in firepower before finally three corporals decapitated three Wutain soldiers. Twenty other Midgarians leapt into the trench and slashed the gunners into pieces.  
Cloud after wasting his ammo on six bodies, brandished his powerful Buster Sword and whirled it around the samurai all the while shouting, "Come on! Bring the fuckers down!"   
The Wutains could not get their katanas out in time to stop the savage onslaught and were cut down in their own trench. The second and third wave arrived and helped finished off the Wutain first wave. As the last samurai clutched his bleeding throat, still alive even though blood was gushing out, the second and third wave of the Wutai appeared, swords raised. The battle ensued- heads lopping off, body parts flying. One of the unfortunate Midgarian to suffer a fatal blow was Simms. He swung his sword high clanging a Wutain soldier's sword, he then brought it down low and parried. Unfortunately a samurai caught him in the back. The one he was fighting with caught him in the stomach. Together both samurai ripped their swords out in unison, sending Simm's body in two pieces on the floor.  
Cloud was slashed in the back, the warmness of the blood flowing everywhere. He stumbled, ducked underneath the second attack of the samurai, and plunged his sword straight into the belly of the samurai. He took it out and swung it in an arc killing two potential backstabbers.  
Suddenly, all quieted in the trench as both sides stopped fighting abruptly. The only sounds were the dying shrieks of the wounded and the buzzing of flies over the corpses. Both sides looked up at Sephiroth and General Watsaki engaged in a fierce death duel. Cloud noted that Sephiroth was being coy in battling the general. He dodged all of the strikes and delivered some of his own. Both sides watched the two with nervousness and ill ease. Sharp clangs of metal drowned the moaning cries of the dying as Sephiroth uppercutted, downshifted, and brought his sword in arc. He then did a surprise whirlwind kick to the general's stomach and drove the sword into the general's sternum. The general convulsed under the pressure and coughed his blood up in large spews. Blood came out of his mouth, eyes, and nose until finally he shivered and died in the street.  
The Wutain soldiers looked at the titan, towards the Midgarian soldiers, and promptly dropped their weapons.  
  
The war was over.   
Nibelheim was saved.  
Yet, the soldiers fighting for Midgar lost the war as well.  
Days later after the trench battle, President ShinRa guided by the Turks arrived in central Nibelheim to offer his congratulatories. Cloud knew, though, that there was something else in this midst. He had recovered from his flesh wound and was sad for the deaths of over six hundred of his men. Five hundred more had made it, but they were haggard and ill at ease. They were not at all thrilled to see their president roaming the streets of Nibelheim, nor were they thrilled that the Turks were here as well. "That only means trouble ahead, sir," a private noted to Cloud in which he agreed.  
Not only was he sad of the deaths, but he was deeply sad that Tifa was not here. She had moved to Midgar to escape the hostage situation, which was a pretty smart move but Cloud was still angry. He wished she were here right now, hard to believe it was six years. Her beauty was the most precious thing he had ever seen and he wished he could see it again.  
After a day of sleeping, Cloud awoke and found an ungrateful sight. Bodies of Nibellian citizens, Midgarian troops, and a few Turkish bodyguards lay in the streets; their trail of blood splattered all over the streets. It was a sight from hell- women and children brutally decapitated and hacked to pieces. He was glad Tifa wasn't here at all for her sake, but he began to wonder what the hell happened here. Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen, as was President ShinRa. The streets of Nibelheim were dark and desolate and populated only by the bodies.  
"What the hell happened here?"  
"Sephiroth went insane."  
The voice scared Cloud, and its prescence created an ominous aura to the desolate streets. In front of him was a Turk with a silver cane topped with a shiny emerald. Reno of the Turks was by far the fiercest of his kind and equally as dangerous as Sephiroth. No one messed around with Reno or had any business to deal with him.  
Cloud looked at him and felt himself chilled by Reno's cold stare. "What do you mean he went insane? What happened here last night?"  
Reno studied Cloud carefully and tilted his cane back and forth on the soil. "A massive slaughter occurred last night. The president was almost killed last night as well. To no avail, though. I got John out of here safely and then turned my attention to that madman. I stared at his bloodless eyes that were burning like the brightest hellfire, and I prepared to kill the bastard right where he stood. Any other man he would've probably cut down, but he did not to me."  
"Why?And why did he do this?"  
"I cannot tell you why he did not kill me, but I think it has something to do with what he became irate over. You see, after the battle he disappeared from the crowd, remember?"  
"Yeah. Vaguely, but yeah."  
"Well, it turns out he found what ShinRa had been looking for. That resource deposit that is actually an old nuclear reactor, something ShinRa was very pleased to discover. "  
Cloud then became angry. "You mean all of us died for that petty cause? Son of a bitch! You can't be- I mean- We fought because of that?!"  
Reno smiled a cruel smile. "Yes, captain, that was what you were fighting over."  
"Bullshit! You can't be serious."  
"I am, and don't you doubt me. I don't like people who don't take me seriously. Anyway, put that aside. There's a much more crucial matter at stake."  
"What?"  
"They found a mutated woman in the reactor that was actually Sephiroth's mother. It is now a product of the Lifestream called Jenova."  
"The hell are you talking about?"  
"All the energy Midgar produces comes from this mako energy. The Lifestream is the core part of this mako energy. And apparantly an accident happened long ago that killed his mother and is now keeping her alive in some weird state."  
"She's alive? But.. why did he go insane?"  
Reno looked at the heavens and then back at Cloud. "Because Midgar attempted to kill her, and they were using Sephiroth as a puppet to obtain this reactor for themselves to replenish their sources. Sephiroth figured this out and went berserk. He killed all the guards there and attempted to kill the president until I and Professor Hojo saved him from the maniac. He then slaughtered allmost everybody here and took off to god knows where."  
"I still don't understand."  
"Well, I'm not going to be your teacher. I've got bigger fish to fry and a girl I'm trying to get."  
Reno turned and walked away to his helicopter which was parked over in the fields.  
"How can you think about the opposite sex at a time when there is a madman on the loose?"  
Reno stopped and grabbed Cloud's collar. "You have no idea what you're getting into. Listen, you go your way and you find out these things for yourself- for I have a feeling that you'll find out eventually."  
Reno let go of Cloud and walked into the fields, leaving the latter very much bewildered.


	2. Chapter Two

**CHAPTER TWO**  
  
_Two Years Later_  
  
The former captain of the Midgarian army gazed thoughtlessly at the corner store window patiently awaiting the arrival of the freight train due to take him to Sector One. Dressed in a denim shirt and dark blue dungarees, he much preferred his current attire. The mud-stained azure uniform he had once worn was now burning in the back of his mind, its ashes hardly a speck of interest to his being now. The only reminder of his past that he carried with him was the Buster Sword- not even a simple-minded idiot could give that weapon up. Sheathed in his belt as to not create suspicion or fright amongst the pedestrians, the sword remained at his side; and, he suspected, it would forever remain there.  
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. He loved this new brand- Midgarian Plume. Funky name, but it gave a damn good smoke. He cupped his hand over it and fired it up. Crisp blue smoke edged from the tip, and he sighed from the pleasure. A cigarette usually helped to calm him down- not that he was normally anxious. Tonight, though, he figured the latest job required of him would probably take more than one measely cigarette to calm him down.

The train was late, and Barret Wallace was furious. Aggression was easy for Barret to get into; and right now the emotions were exploding over him. "To hell with this! We'll never get this shit done, if this fucking train doesn't get here soon. Ya' listenin' to me?" He hit Biggs over the head who was trying to bury himself into the newspaper to avoid attracting any curious attention towards him and the angry black man. Moments like these were getting too perpetual and tedious for his own liking, so he dropped the paper and turned towards the irate man.  
Biggs sighed. He didn't really know what to say, but he knew Barret would grew more impatient if he didn't respond to him. "Just...think of it as another _thrilling _experience that we all...must...er..undergo. An adventure...so to speak."  
Barret stopped panting and considered this remark very carefuly. He wasn't the most intelligent man on the planet, and obscure remarks tended to confuse him and postpone his temper. With his left hand- his only hand- he stroked his grizzled chin pondering the statement with as much scrutiny as deciding a critical chess piece move. His right arm, with the gatling gun perfectly crafted and socketed directly on the wrist where his right hand should have been, rested on a bench that needed a serious paint job to it. His muscular body arched to the side in contemplation. His face scrunched up and his eyes narrowed- the very meaning of this remark seemed to be putting a strain on him.   
Biggs stifled his laughter and bent over to pick up the newspaper. On the cover was yet another article about ShinRa's condemnations toward AVALANCHE and another warning that the hear-named terrorists were likely to strike again. He smiled. He and his companions had finally put a sense of fear into the president and his corporation- hopefully it would last forever. He figured it would considering their recruitment of the newest member- a dashing young man who was the former big dog of SOLDIER. Quite a catch.   
Nothing to lose for AVALANCHE, he figured.  
"Barret, there's nothing to fret about. Now settle down, relax. The train will putter itself here shortly." He sat down on an adjacent bench and opened the paper to the sports page. "Damn, the Kalm league lost again last night."  
"Heh, I think someone has two hundred up for adoption," a pudgy, bald man snickered as he slided his way over from the water fountain.  
"Oh, Wedge, you bastard. Must you always rub these things in my face like this."  
Wedge only smiled and flicked his palm upwards.  
Biggs sighed and pulled out the money. "Take this and don't say a word."  
"Just an adventure," Barret mused to himself as he slowly walked from the bench.  
"Heh, what's with the boss?" Wedge asked, slightly concerned. Barret had always gotten on his nerves, and he lately considered leaving the group. He declined the thought and stayed- with some reluctance.  
"Oh, he's just throwin' a hissy fit, because the train aint here yet."  
"Oh. Sounds just like the guy." Wedge counted the money, making sure it was all accounted for and shoved it in his pocket. "Well, Jessie have worked out the wires on the bomb. You've got the code decoder all set. Cloud appears ready. You know, he has not moved from that bench since we got here- when was that? five hours ago?"  
Biggs looked over at the exSOLDIER. "Maybe he's just stayin' cool."  
Wedge nodded his head. "Probably. Maybe he's thinkin' about his past."  
"Probably."  
"Barret doesn't trust him."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Told me. Said he was involved in that crazy war-"  
"We all were. We three were just lucky enough not to be non-Midgarian citizens."  
"True, but Barret...you know as well as I do that Barret absolutely despises ShinRa-related policies, and 'ol Cloud over there was involved in a ShinRa-related policy."  
Biggs scoffed and returned his gaze to the newspaper. "Sounds like bullshit to me."  
"True, true, but still-"  
"It's bullshit plain and simple, Wedge. You can't judge a book by its cover, and I'll bet you - this is one I'm sure to win at- that Cloud is a damn good fighter."  
Wedge smiled. "Oh, I have no doubts about that, my friend. No doubts at all."

"Cloud."  
The former captain looked up into the eyes of a pretty redhead who was holding the bulky package containing the present Sector One was about to receive. She had a pretty face that was slightly tanned and an equally pretty body.  
"Hey, Jessie, you ready for tonight?" His cigarette dull he threw it into the nearby ashtray and pulled out another one.  
"Yeah, but I don't know about you. You keep chugging those cigarettes and you'll likely pass out before the night is over."  
Cloud smiled but looked pained. He mumbled, "Keep remembrin' the day of the trench battle."  
She frowned and sat on the bench next to him, placing the package in her lap. A faint floral perfume eminated off of her, and Cloud perked up a little bit. She reached over and touched his hand. "Were you hurt during that battle?"  
"Minor injury. Feel like I've cheated death." He puffed silently on his cigarette and continued to stare at the corner store window.  
Jessie's hand traced the sharp veins on Cloud's as she said soothingly,"I think you served honorably whether you cheated death or not. Don't be too hard on yourself."  
"After watching people die in front of you, you tend to be bitter about such things. Others also don't even want to be recognized by you."  
"I do."  
He looked at her with curiousity. "You're just saying that."  
"No." She leaned in closer. "I really do."  
They looked at each other for a long moment until a loud screeching sound echoed from the depths of the depot. A large train, black as night, slowed to a halt at Dock 14 ready to transport Midgarians from Sector Six to Sector One. Barret hollored to Biggs and Wedge to hurry up. Jessie glanced momentarily away then quickly looked back. "Good luck, tonight." She squeezed his hand, smiled, and got up from the bench.  
Cloud watched her go, a feeling of compassion temporarily present in his heart. When Wedge yelled his name out, he dropped the feeling, dulled out his smoke, and got up from the bench.  
  
Sector One.  
One of eight nuclear reactor facilities powering Midgar and ShinRa corporation. The president himself, decked out in the finest suit any noted dignatary could afford, strolled down the crosswalk and proudly affiliated himself with all the latest work attended to its build. One of the two larger reactors, Sector One was considered a valuable asset to ShinRa's supply; and, he felt, military personnel was recommended to protect this valuable asset. He made the order and now, on this very day, he was being shown the results by Top General Heidegger.  
"I assume that Sector One is highly secure, General, and that I need say no more about its wonderful quality. Shall I also assume that all areas of this reactor are indeed sealed off from terrorist invasion?"  
On the contrary to ShinRa's happiness, Heidegger was undeniably flustered after hearing the latest news from his Top Seargent. He took a deep breath and said," Sector One, sir, is highly secure. No doubt about it. However, um, on the western crosswalk, it is on a raised level that is impossible to get our troops positioned onto. The only way we could do that was if we could walk on the ceiling." Here, Heidegger attempted at a laugh. "Of course, we can't do that, sir, it's physically impossi-"  
ShinRa grabbed his top officer and threw him against the railing, dislocating Heidegger's shoulder. Workers repairing a damaged rail looked over fearfully at the scene.   
He bent over the cowering officer. "I ordered you to secure every area of this reactor, and this is what I get!"  
Heidegger stammered," There is on-one thing my men can do. So-Something that'll put a stop to any intrusion."  
ShinRa looked at him. "Show me it, now."  
Ten minutes later, at the core of the reactor, Heidegger punched a button on a large dashboard and a gate released behind them. ShinRa turned and gazed in surprise as Heidegger's "pet" crept out of the shadows. Sleek in texture, powerful in build, it crawled across the walls and landed by the feet of the president.  
"It'll only kill non-corporation workers. It's our perfect guard, and the best machinery Professor Hojo has ever constructed." Heidegger looked over nervously at ShinRa.  
The latter smiled wickedly and replied. "Use it."  
  
The train snaked its way in a wide arc around the city before eventually entering the gates of Sector One. Barret stood up and held onto the rail for support. "Alright, guys and girl, we have exactly five minutes ahead of us before this here train stops. Let's review very briefly. Once we get off, split up and go separate ways toward the reactor's gate. I'll tell what to do next there. If a guard questions you, either use your silencer or (and here he addressed Cloud) your sword on him." He looked over the team and faintly smiled. They were the only ones in this cart- he had made sure of that- and they appeared anxious yet ready. Wedge, especially, looked too timid; but Barret didn't really care- Wedge's job was only to destroy the security surveillances and provide an exitway into the sewers. Preferably a bombing job, which Wedge was really good at.  
The train began to slow, and Barret regained his frown. He let go of the rail and walked over to the cart's door.  
Jessie secured the package under her arm and looked briefly at Cloud, who was lost in his own world staring out the window into the blackness. Biggs uncocked his pistol and inserted six bullets into it. Wedge wrung his hands and made sure the security disabling plans were in his overcoat.   
Biggs looked at him. "Just follow the step-by-step instructions, Wedge. It's not brain surgery."  
Wedge merely chuckled as the train came to a full halt.  
The cart doors opened, and Barret leapt out of the train. Biggs exited out the opposite door, followed closely by Wedge and Jessie. Cloud unsheathed his sword and tailed Barret. Immediately, his foot sank into a sewage puddle. As he gazed up and down the train station, he could see a long trail of sewage trickling in a slow undulation. The sight and smell reminded him that he was in the slums, and he frowned his displeasure.  
He crossed the boardwalk admist a crowd of curious pedestrians. All of them looked at his four-foot meat cleaver he held in his hand and steered clear of his path. A security guard stood erect at a lamppost and another strolling the far end of the boardwalk. Unlike Sector Six, Sector One did not have any security cameras hooked up to the train station, so he felt better about that.  
He walked up to the guard at the lamppost, and the latter scrutinized him with suspicion. "Excuse me, officer, but I need directions to the commander-in-charge's quarters of Sector One. I have got a present here for him." Cloud gestured toward his sword.  
The guard raised his eyebrows and said," Oh. A kitchen gift, huh?"  
"Mm, yeah. A little big and bulky. But, hey, it's great for carving meat."  
"Yeah, I bet it is. Look, pal, you're not going anywhere. I'm going to have to ask you to come with me and answer a few questions." He turned and gestured for the other guard, who began walking towards the scene. By now, most of the people who came off the train had left, except for a few homeless peasants and some prostitutes.  
"Hey, that's fine with me. Answer me a question first, though."  
"Yeah, what?"  
"You led a comfortable, good life?"  
"Pretty much, why?"  
"Good." Cloud smiled and impaled the guard in the stomach. The guard's eyes widened immensely, and he began choking on his own blood. The second guard broke into a trot and brandished his pistol. Cloud released his sword and hurled the bloody blade at the other guard. The blade cut off his head in one clean sweep, sending the missle straight into a pillar. The blade skidded across the ground. The first guard remained choking on his blood and wheezing sharply before finally succumbing to the pain. As Cloud bent to pick up his sword, a snarl sounded behind him. He looked and a huge black dog bounced ontop of him. Cloud defensively blocked the guard hound's jaws from ripping his neck open. They both squirmed around on the ground a few seconds, before Cloud got his foot underneath the hound's stomach and kicked it hard. The hound fell on its back, and Cloud inserted his sword into its heart.  
He brought it out and flicked the guts off it. As he turned to the three dead bodies, four more snarls sounded behind him. He broke into a run, and the guard hounds leapt over their fallen comrade and chased him through the slum alleys. Drunks waved to him as he passed by, but he didn't take notice. One of the dogs was on his heels, and he tried to swipe it with his sword but couldn't.  
A patrolling guard heard the sounds of barking and quickly turned around. Before he could, Cloud seized him, quickly grabbed his gun arm and shot the closest hound in the head. A second swerved to miss the dead body and got shot in the neck. The guard elbowed Cloud in the face, and Cloud returned the blow with an impale of his sword. The guard fell down, and the two remaining dogs stopped and growled at Cloud. He reached with his hand and wiped the small trail of blood from his nose. The hounds studied him some more and seemed to be considering the objective of killing this crazy man. They reconsidered and left the street. Cloud sighed a relief and pressed onwards.  
Five minutes later, he was at the reactor gate. Finished with cleaning his reddened sword, he sheathed it and joined his companions at the doors. All four of them there, and all were looking a little hectic.  
"Looks like Cloud got a piece of action out there," said a curious Biggs.  
Jessie, who was working out the lock system, asked," You didn't get hurt, did you?"  
"Ah, you know me, nothing bad ever happens to me."  
"Aw, cut the shit. I'd prefer it if you got your ass here without creatin' any noise," Barret shouted.  
Wedge was saying a prayer, while tightly clutching the diasbling papers. He was sweating.  
"Hey, hey, hey," Barret yelled, "stop acting all babyish over here."  
"I can't help it, dammit. Don't you see? We're terrorists. Do you know what kind of price ShinRa has on our heads! I mean if we get caught, that's the end of the world for us, man. I have a wife and kids back home, and they don't deserve to have me being all gungho like this, you know."  
"Shut your fuckin' mouth, Wedge! You are doing this for the safety of your wife and kids. By eliminating ShinRa's reactors and, eventually, ShinRa's corporation itself, the citizens of Midgar will be blessed with new peace.  
"Are you thinking of quiting on me, because if you are-" Barret raised his gunarm and cocked it ready. "You got another thing coming."  
Cloud, for once, looked scared. Jessie got the door opened, but failed to notice it from the distraction. Biggs began biting his nails.  
Wedge looked down the barrel of Barret's gun and replied, "I would never quit on you guys."  
"Then grow some fuckin' testicles and follow us in here!"  
Barret turned to the open doorway and said, "Alright, Cloud. You're coming with me. Jessie give him the bomb. Biggs you and Jessie open the doorways. Wedge, listen to me, find the surveillance room and black it out. Then create an exitway. Got it?"  
Wedge nodded.  
"Everybody else?"  
"Let's roll, boss," Biggs replied.   
  
The surveillance room was easy to find, and one lone guard slept at his patrol route. Wedge had found it curious that there were hardly any personnel around. From the reports he got, the Sector One layout was covered with troops. He knew something was wrong, and he began to get queasy again.  
"Don't worry," he said to himself,"it's just one guy. And it looks like he's asleep."  
He laughed to himself and edged closer to the room. The guard was sleeping in a chair in front of a big dashboard of computer screens. Screens linked to cameras everywhere in the reactor. On some of them he could see Barret and Cloud running across the catwalks. He was glad this guy was asleep.  
He crept up right behind the chair, right above the sleeping soldier, and brought out his silenced pistol. He placed right ontop of the brain, his index finger poised above the trigger. His heart was pounding, he had never done this before. He looked away.  
"Can't. I just can't."  
Sweat poured down his face. It was getting too hot in the room to breathe. He made a sharp choking sound in his throat, and the guard stirred. He opened his eyes, and Wedge lost his voice. His heart seemed to stop beating.  
The guard reached his hand to his eyes and rubbed them. He then looked at the screens and saw AVALANCHE running around on several cameras. "Oh, shit, the terrorists!" He grabbed his walkie-talkie. "S4-22, we got some suspicious characters on the southwestern corridor, o-" He noticed a shadow over him. He looked up.  
Wedge pulled the trigger.  
  
"Jessie, you got that door open, yet?" Barret yelled impatiently.  
"No, the wirings screwed up."  
"Fuck."  
"Hey, Barret, lighten up," Cloud said nonchalantly. "You got an experienced fighter on your hands. No reason to get all pissed up, okay?"  
"You're part of the reason I'm 'pissed up', asshole!"  
Cloud rolled his eyes.  
"Got it," Jessie cried. The door freed open, and the bottom of the reactor was seen, the core of it visible, their destination obvious.  
Biggs noted curiously, "There's no one down there. What's up?"  
"Good for us, then," Cloud responded.  
"No, this aint right," Barret said. "Still, we must do this. Come on, Cloud. Got the package?"  
"Yeah, I got it."  
"Let's go."  
  
The computer screens faded away, as Wedge cut the last wire. He then sat back, brought his knees to his chest, and cried. The body of the guard lay in his view, but he couldn't look at it. He still had blood on his face from the explosion, and he had elected not to wipe it off. He cried into his arms until the shirt was too damp to lay on.  
He had killed the radio, too, even though a response had issued out of it. He had then thrown the gun off the side of he bridge and stared at the body, head a bowl of jello.   
He raised himself to a sitting position, and began wiping his face. It had taken him a half hour to cut the wires on account of his crying. So far, no signs of enemy patrol had come, and he considered that unusual. He figured, though, that there were some on the way; so he rose and started to walk.   
The first step he took, he shivered and lost balance. He cracked his chin on the metal floor, and pain rocketed through his body. His mind focused on the events that just took place around him, and he failed to notice the huge mechanical monster that slithered its way down the walls of the reactor towards the core.  
  
The core tower was immense and connected on all sides with five layers of crosswalk, all unpatrolled and desolate. Such a scene reminded Cloud of the streets of Nibelheim two years ago. He shuddered and opened up the package. The small, powerful bomb lay inside, perfectly designed for this one simple task. He looked around the reactor.  
"You know, it seems kind of a pity to be using this one tiny thing to destroy a beautiful construction such as this."  
"Well, you're quite the romantic, aren't you," Barret muttered.  
Cloud sighed and pulled out the bomb. Neither of them noticed the Guard Scorpion looking at them.  
The bomb fit snugly in a depression of the core's body. It had just enough room all the way around it to create a nice explosion and impact. The wires were then fused to the central control box through a little switching, and then Cloud flipped on the trigger. Red lights flicked on the number 10:00, and started counting down.  
"Ten minutes," Cloud said to himself, "that should give us enough time to- holy shit, Barret look out!" As he turned the Scorpion jumped off where it had suspended on a rail and then landed on Cloud and Barret's crosswalk. Before it could skewer the surprised Barret, Cloud slashed at its tail, and the metal monster let out a shriek. It jumped backwards and stared them down.  
The beast was an incredible ten feet tall and extremely agile for a meta robot. Its menacing tail hung poised over its body ready to strike. Its claspers pinched wildly at the air, and its eyes were a cruel blood red. It stared them down with such intensity that Barret and Cloud both felt uneasy despite their bravado.  
Barret made the first move and opened fire with his M60. Only three bullet hit the Scorpion, as the arachnid jumped out of the way, flipped in the air, and landed hard on the crosswalk. The impact sent a shockwave across the crosswalk and blew both of them down. Cloud hit the core tower, and the Scorpion thrust its tail. Cloud blocked the first thrust, and Barret fired at the tail. The Scorpion changed positions and hit Barret with its tail sending him flying down the crosswalk.  
Cloud leapt up and slashed at the scorpion's legs. One of the eight hung loosely on its joint, and Cloud quickly cut its remains off, sending the pieces flying into the radiation below. The Scorpion hollored and clamped its clasper hard on CLoud's shoulder. WArm blood drew from his wound, and Cloud fell to his knees.  
Barret opened fire again and blew thirty rounds into the scorpion's head before having to reload. The Scorpion shrieked and jumped to the crosswalk above. Suddenly, its tail grew bright.  
"Shit! It's going to fire a laser! Barret, get to the top of that crosswalk."  
"Get your ass over here, too!"  
Cloud stumbled his way to the ladder, one arm clinging to his bleeding shoulder. Behind them, they could here the energy fizzinf on the raised tail and could see a bright blue light reflecting off of the walls. Barret reached the ladder first, and the Guard Scorpion shot the Tail Laser.  
A big jagged lightning bolt zigzagged its way all over the crosswalk, exploding it into shreds, metal flying everywhere. Jagged pipelines scraped Cloud's back and he hung limply on the ladder. Below him, where the crosswalk used to be, was nothing but a pool of radiation. The warmth of the laser beam was so intense that his skin started to peel off of him. Just before the beam reached him, it lost energy and died away.  
Barret jumped onto the crosswalk and fired his second round. The Scorpion bowed to the pain, but as Barret hurriedly reloaded, it recoiled and jumped into the air. Barret dropped his clip, and hastened for another in his vest; but the Scorpion pounced on him and knocked him over the edge. His good hand found grip, and he hung their loosely. The Guard Scorpion surveyed its prized and poked Barret in the head with one of its legs. As it poised its tail over Barret's skull, it let out a holler.  
Cloud's sword cut deep into its back and twisted against the metal components, disrupting the bodily functions and mechanical organs. The dying shriek was incessant, and the Scorpion tried vainly to kill its attacker, but to no avail. It slumped to the floor, the sword still twisting and turning in its metal frame. Its blood red eyes lost their color, and Cloud took his sword out of the arachnid. The lifeless body fell off of the crosswalk and into the murky pool below.  
It took an effort to pull Barret up onto the crosswalk, but when Cloud finally achieved it th black man had a smile on his face. "Why, I never knew you could pull something off like that."  
"You had brass balls too, Barret."  
"Well, lucky for both of us that you figured out that tail beam thing, man, or we'd both end lookin' like a couple of crispy chicken nuggets."  
Cloud smiled. Suddenly, a realization dawned on him. "Oh shit, we gotta run!"  
"Don't need to tell me twice!"  
  
Biggs watched as Wedge set the bomb at the exitway into the sewers. He wasn't at all entirely pleased with Wedge's behavior, but given the circumstances it was Wedge's first time at killing someone.   
"I'm sorry if I let you down, Biggs. I really am."  
"Just do this and drown your sorrows out at the bar later. Jessie, they come yet?"  
Jessie shook her head and looked frightened. The pressure now was starting to get to her. The alarm had sounded off eight minutes ago, which meant the bomb had been set in place, but what was keeping them? Flashes of movement caught their attention and she saw some security guards coming towards him. "Biggs! Fighters!"  
"Duck!" Biggs threw a grenade at the oncoming party and three of them were blown skyhigh. Nine more came from a room at the eastern corridor and fired their weapons. Jessie screamed and hid behind the wall, drawing her silenced pistol.  
Wedge trembled to himself and tried to set the wires straight. His fingers wouldn't cooperate, and the sweat was caking on his forehead.  
Biggs fired six rounds at the onslaught and downed two gunners. A bullet ricocheted off the metal railing and pegged him in the shoulder. A thin trail of blood squirted out from the wound. A gunner trrained himself on Bigg's position, but Jessie aimed at his skull and shot him in his right eye. The shot drove his body into the line of fire, causing it to be riddled in bullets, leaving behind a bloody waterfountain display. She shivered from the scene.   
It seemed over.  
At the last minute, Wedge applied the wires right and told them to move. Up above, Barret arrived and downed the gunners. The bomb exloded leaving the entryway to the sewers.  
Barret shouted, "Go!" and the team hobbled out of the reactor. Cloud ran as quickly as he could down the stairs. From the location of the central tower came a peculiar sound and the bomb exploded. As soon as Cloud jumped into the sewers, Sector One blew to the high heavens.  
  
ShinRa looked at the destruction. It was monumental. A huge halo of fire ripped apart the reactor frame and thousnds of fragments of reactor metal sailed into the air and finally landed onto the slums below. Shockwaves beat against the protecting glass of ShinRa Corp. A huge column of smoke rose thickly into the air, leaving behind a somewhat ominous sight- a monolith of a reactor burning in the fires of hell.


	3. Chapter Three

**CHAPTER THREE**  
  
A lighted cigarette flourished in the darkness of the sewers. Cloud Strife silently puffed away, while Jessie shone a flashlight over Wedge's head. The latter was installing another bomb to explode another hole in a sewer pipeline- and he was having some difficulty. Cloud watched him cuss his brains out over the process, and wondered just when Wedge would obtain a stroke from all his stress. He looked over at Biggs bandaging his shoulder, and went over to him. "Has he always been this way?" he asked him in a whisper.  
Biggs secured his shoulder in a tight brace and turned his full attention to Cloud. "Before he joined AVALANCHE, no. However, he's always been a little on the edge." He thought about something for a second, then added in a low voice, "I think he killed someone for the first time, too."  
Cloud nodded knowingly and replied nothing. Thinking about that made his cigarette lose its brilliant taste, so he dropped it into the sewage, a long trail of smoke seen faintly in the dim glimmer of the flashlight.  
Barret was growing impatient. "The fuck's wrong up there?"  
"He's got it, Barret. Just control yourself," Jessie snarled at him.  
Wedge set the timer, and all five of them ran away from the device.  
  
A flower girl, caught along with everybody in the confusion of the destruction, heard another blast go off near the Sector One train station and began to get afraid. Something was going on in this city, and she worried for her mother in Sector Five. She decided to board the train and make sure if her mother was alright.

Burning oil and broken pipeline lay strewn behind them. Murky sewage poured out of the blasted sewers in a large river circling around the street. Above them, though, they turned their full attention. The large halos of smoke and rings of fire were still painting the sky, creating an ominous look that frightened even Barret. They all continued to stare at the apocalypse of a reactor for a few minutes, listening to the faraway sounds of screaming people, and smelling burning metal and smoke.  
Barret cleared his throat and said, "Well, we sure created a phenomenon today."  
The others agreed and made light comments to themselves.  
"Um," he continued, "let's head to the train and head on to Sector Seven. I think we all did a damn good job today, and I feel ShinRa will think twice about his motives from now on."  
"Really?" Biggs said, condescendingly. "You don't think he is going to step up a notch in security, maybe even tortue some of our allies as to our whereabouts?"  
"He can try all the hell he wants, but he'll never find us. Never. As long as I'm leading you slugs, AVALANCHE will succeed in its mission."  
Cloud rolled his eyes and felt his badly burned right arm. He thought he saw a trace of bone along the elbow peeking out at him, and he almost reeled. The pain had been escalating since he received the Tail Laser blow. He winced as his fingers caressed the peeling skin. Jessie saw him and went up to him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.  
"I'm glad you made it. You were starting to worry me back there, I-" She saw his burnt skin and started to cry. "Cloud..." she lightly touched it, "..does it hurt badly?"  
Her touch was not hurting his burn, and her soft caress was beginning to work on him. He cleared his throat and replied, "N-no. It's fine. The thing didn't get me too badly. Some of Tifa's medicine will help cure it.  
She sighed. "Yes, good ol' Tifa's medicine will cure anything, won't it?" She looked into his eyes and smiled. "I'm glad you're here. Don't scare me again like that, okay."  
Cloud said nothing as she kissed him again, this time very close to his lips. She left him there, and he scratched his head wonderingly. He saw Wedge look at him funny and then walk off, leaving him alone. He looked up once more at the burning reactor and wondered what his old commander-in-chief was thinking at this moment.  
Suddenly, a soft voice broke his thoughts.  
"Sir?"  
He turned around and gasped. A beautiful woman stood before him, her arm cradling a big basket of yellow and orange flowers. She wore a pink dress with a red jacket unbottoned around it. The thing, though, that struck him the most was her hair. It was rich. It was a pure brown. It was incredibly long. Braid upon braid, it curled around her shoulder and ended in a pink ribbon with an odd crystal jewel in the center. Her skin was pale but beautiful, and her eyes a gorgeous green. He couldn't find a voice to reply.  
She smiled, but then looked at his arm. "oh! Are you hurt? That burn looks terrible."  
He glanced at his arm and quickly answered, "Oh, that's nothing. Just got caught a little by the blaze. It-it doesn't hurt that bad-"  
"Uh-huh," she smiled a concerned smile, and reached into her flower basket.   
He watched her pull out a green bottle and open it. "What's that?"  
"Curaga."  
"Cur-what?" Then he sighed in relief as she poured the liquid onto his burn. The pain died immediately, and the skin fused together forming a new, healthy golden color, the old, peeling skin falling to the street. "Holy shit."  
She smiled up at him. "There you go."  
"Thank you, miss-"  
"Aeris. It's a pleasure to meet you, mister-"  
"Cloud."  
"Cloud. Strong name."  
He smiled and noticed her flowers. "Mind if I take one?"  
Her eyes sparkled. "Really? Thank you, there only one gil."  
"One gil? Oh, Aeris, you deserve more than that." He got a few coins and deposited them into her hand. "Here, here's ten gil."  
She smiled up at him and silently gave him the prettiest flower of the whole bunch. "You got a special girl at home?"  
He thought of Tifa and nodded.  
"She's lucky," she said and placed the gil in her basket. "Nice meeting with you, Mister Cloud." She smiled and left.  
He had trouble walking to the nearby train.Heidegger squirmed uncomfortably in his chair as ShinRa came into the conference room. A vein on his forehead pulsed immensely, seeming to want to tear itself out of the president's skin. ShinRa had one hand in his pocket, clutching something.  
Heidegger rose awkwardly to his feet and said in a low voice, "I'm ter-terribly so-sorry sir for this l-lost cause-"  
ShinRa pulled out his pistol and shot the wall behind Heidegger, the bullet barely missing his face. "A lost cause? A lost cause! You would have been a lost cause if your head had been two inches to the right!" He cocked the semi-automatic back into the play and twirled it around. He walked casually over to the General, who was prespiring in his freshly-washed suit.  
ShinRa smirked. "How's that shoulder of yours doing?"  
"Healing, but-ah!"  
The pistol butt crashed down on Heidegger's shoulder, and he slumped to the ground. ShinRa then brought the barrel over to press it lightly on the General's temple. "One more mistake, General, and you can kiss your ass goodbye."  
He pocketed the gun, bent over, and spewed a long trail of spit on the General's face.  
  
Tifa Lockheart ran to the entrance door of her bar _Seventh Heaven_ to see the motley group of AVALANCHE walk up the wooden steps. Her eyes immediately settled on Cloud, who looked strangely healthy and uninjured. She was thankful for this, and she immediately ran up to him and hugged him. "oh, thank the stars you are okay."  
Cloud could smell the usual scented perfume and smiled back into her lovely brown eyes.  
She did the same and then addressed the whole group, "Come inside. You all look beat. The usual is fresh and ready for you, Biggs."  
Biggs cheered and raced Wedge up the stairs. Barret leaned over to Tifa. "Marlene okay?"  
"Sleeping like a baby at this hour. Even the blast didn't wake her up."  
Barret smiled and quickly walked up the stairs.  
Jessie looked from Cloud to Tifa and back again, and then silently ran up the stairs. Cloud thought he saw her wiping away a tear from her eye. Tifa didn't notice, so he didn't bother to say anything. Instead, he showed her the yellow flower. "Picked this up for you."  
Her eyes glowed as she took and smelled the flower. "Oh, Cloud, you shouldn't have."  
"No biggie. Just thought I'd come and surprise you."  
She fluttered her eyelashes at him and took out a hairpin. As she was pinning the golden present in her hair, she mused to herself, "I wonder how my bar would look like if I decorated it with some floral decor. Hm. Would it be too girly?"  
"No. On the contrary, it would add a lot of color to itself. The inside is way too dull-looking. I think some decor would spice things up a bit in here."  
She smiled and took his hand. "You're going to stand here all night, or are you going to join little ol' me for a drink?"  
He laughed, held her hand in his, and followed her up the stairs.  
  
Wedge lay on the floor, where he had fallen out of his chair. He was badly drunk and could not remember his name. The day's events, which he thought had been tragic for him, were now forgotten. The day's destruction was lost in the chronicles of time. Nothing mattered to him as of the moment, except the wonderful dream he was having as a long dribble of booze snaked its way over his lips onto the floor.  
Biggs remained in his chair in a dream-like slumber. He was satiated. Apart from Tifa's good food and beer, he had won an incredible amount of money from the hands of Wedge and Barret in a few games of poker- shall we say, about 15000 gil. The latter was so furious that he stormed out of the bar with no clear sign of a destination. Biggs now slept, dreaming of bilking more money from his drunk friend Wedge.  
Cloud sipped his beer lightly- he preferred the taste of cigarettes to beer- and turned his attention to Tifa, cleaning the bar down for the night. Her usual uniform, a light green dress with _Seventh Heaven_ embroidered in gold on the chest, was always too low-cut for her. He caught himself smiling as she bent over to pick up something, spilling her voluptous breasts halfway out the top.  
He laid his beer down and asked, "Do you get a lot of cheap men in here?"  
She looked at him, puzzled; but then he gestured to her dress, and she laughed, "Yeah, I get alot here. Tends to get annoying after awhile. I guess I was unlucky enough to be born this way."  
He wanted to say something, but he thought better of it and instead said, "Time to hit the sack."  
She looked at him with a loving expression that made his stomach flip-flop. "Sleep tight, Cloudy."  
He laughed nervously and went up the stairs, scratching his head.  
No sooner had he opened the door to his room, when the bedroom light snapped on, and Jessie sat up in his bed. His eyes widened, and he asked," Jessie, is something wrong? What're-"  
"I came to be with you for the night. You can lock the door, and no one will ever know."  
He noticed that she didn't appear to be wearing anything under the covers, and his heart became pounding. Jessie was a beautiful girl, but he didn't have nearly enough of those feelings as he did to someone else. She looked at him inquisitively, patiently awaiting his agreement to the situation.  
"Jessie...I don't think we should do this."  
Her lips quivered. "You're not still wrapped up on that Tifa, are you?" She studied him. "Are you?"   
Getting no response, she continued, "You are, aren't you. Cloud, look at her and look at me. Sure I'm no glamorous supermodel like her or whatnot, but I've got qualities, you know. And..most of the time, I'm the one who joins you boys on these dangerous missions we do and actually risk my life a bit, while she just sits back here and paints her nails. Mine get gritty and dirty from hard work, while hers look salon-perfect from absolutely nothing required of her at all.  
"And.. if it's looks you're searching for, let me tell you. I'm 100% real, Cloud." With that she draped down the covers, exposing her nakedness to him. He took a small step back in suprise as his eyes looked her over- she was not bad-looking at all. Her small but firm breasts bounced as she added angrily, "Those breasts on Tifa are fake, Cloud. Fake. Why would you want to hold silicone in your hands, when you could have something more ..decent?"  
He gulped and ran his hands through his hair. He cleared his throat and said, "I..guess I don't have much choice here, do I?"  
"Is that a bad thing?"  
He looked at her and thought about that. "No. No, actually, that's...not a bad thing at all."  
  
Sector Five.  
The smallest of the reactors, yet the largest supplier of nuclear energy. Sector Five produced probably half the energy needed to power ShinRa Corp.; therefore, it was of great importance. ShinRa himself was making a personal appearance to the place; therefore, security was tight. There was now a guard on every crosswalk, and the security surveillance room could now only be entered with a special key card.  
There was one other route of which AVALANCHE saw: the subway.  
The problem with Sector Five was that the subway linked underneath the plant and then led exactly to the heart of the reactor. Just a simple climb up some shafts and a few crosswalks, and a bomb could easily be placed without security knowing.  
There were many things different about Sector Five from Sector One. The most obvious was that Sector Five was built directly over the slums, which meant that an explosion if it was big enough could wipe out the slums below it. This was a risk Barret was willing to take. Another difference between the reactors was, of course, the size. It proved advantageous for Barret, because a large-scaled assault could not penetrate its depths too successfully; only a few sentries were able to walk the crosswalks- but they were elite sentries at that.  
  
Tifa was joining this time, much to Jessie's surprise, and she was now decked out in a sports bra and black shorts- short shorts at that. She did not seem to see the looks Cloud and Jessie were giving to each other. She was, however, puzzled that Cloud had not made any complimentary comments on her appearance. Before they left, he had told her that they were on a serious mission and that it did not call for her type of wear.   
She wasn't exactly pleased with that remark.  
All six of them now stood in the heart of Sector Five, the sewers behind them, the core tower in front of them. They looked below them and saw the slums below. Wall Market was way on the outskirts of the slums, but Cloud figured if they triggered the blast wrong Wall Market would crumble as well. "Barret, you sure you worked out the physics right?"  
"It ain't rocket science, prick. You just got to find the right depression to put it in."  
Wedge was feeling alright, but he kept clutching his stomach as if to stop some vile creature from ripping his flesh open. Biggs was still fingering his money and smiling to himself. Tifa walked over to the railing and looked down to the slums. Behind them all, Jessie came over to Cloud's ear, nibbled on it, and said, "You were excellent last night." She then kissed his neck and left into the subway. Biggs and Wedge followed- their jobs were to plan an escape route and stop any intrusion from that direction.  
Cloud scratched his head, and took out the package with the bomb inside it. "Let's blow this bitch up!"  
  
They could see guards atop the crosswalks, guns brandished, faces stern, walking in trance-like motion. The three "terrorists" stayed on the unoccupied bottom crosswalk and reached the core tower's ladder. Cloud climbed up first, and took each step one at a time. The steps of these ladders were pure metal and clanged loudly as he stepped on them.  
He heard a sound and looked up.  
A guard stood gazing around the reactor, gun searching against his eye. Cloud ever so slightly pulled out his backup silenced pistol and looked up and down the crosswalk. No other guard was on the crosswalk. He pulled the trigger and the guard fell lifeless over the railing and down to the slums below.  
"Oh, shit, that's gruesome," Tifa cried.  
"Cloud, move it, there's someone coming down our 'walk!" Barret yelled.  
Cloud bit his tongue as two guards came down their crosswalk. Tifa was not yet on the ladder, and Barret was only on the fifth step. He hurried on up, clanging loudly and praying that they wouldn't hear.  
Apparantly one of them did hear, and he quickened his pace to the core tower.  
Cloud made it to the top and started unwrapping the package. Barret was halfway up, and Tifa just got onto the ladder when the guard saw them. "Freeze!"  
"Fuck you!" Barret yelled back and riddled the guard's body, sending the bloody corpse across the crosswalk.  
The second guard fired an order in his walkie-talkie, but Barret silenced both of them and then quickly climbed up the ladder.  
Cloud got the bomb out, but was startled by the noise of guard's feet on the crosswalks. A bullet pierced a pipe in the core tower and hot steam came out, almost burning his face. Another bullet hit his shoulder, and another skimmed his hand. He ducked behind the tower, with the bomb clutched in his bleeding hand.  
Barret ducked behind the tower, as well, and provided covering fire for Cloud. His M60 rang loudly in the reactor's walls and brought down five guards before a bullet ricocheted off the railing and sliced his shoulder. He fell backwards and ducked behind the tower.  
Tifa pulled out her pistol and remained on the ladder. Her hair was all in her face, and she was actually sweating- which surprised her. She saw Barret's skin shred from a bullet in the shoulder, and she winced. She didn't want to be here and see all this bloodshed. She saw Cloud over there sheilded behind Barret, working out the bomb. She had high hopes then- of what she could not know. She instead aimed her pistol and fired at the guard's heads. She saw them rip open, and she gasped at the sight and at the wonder of her accuracy.  
Cloud set the timer and the green lights flashing 10:00 appeared on the glass. He then turned his attention to the scene on the crosswalk. About twenty guards were firing at them, under cover of the railings, seven of them were dead. He noticed Barret, who had now suffered ten minor, but bleeding wounds, and he saw Tifa who had been shot in the side and was barely holding on to the ladder. He knew he had to do something.  
"Barret, I'm going in! While I do my thing, get Tifa and help her. Okay?"  
"Wh-What're you going to do?"  
"Something stupid that will work!"  
"That sounds like a plan! Just don't get yerself killed. Got it?"  
"Just get Tifa."  
With that, the Buster Sword came out and he leapt out of cover from the tower. At that point, he lost track of time and sound. He could barely hear Tifa scream his name out in horror. He could even barely hear the bullets whizzing by him. The only thing he heard was the sound of his sword deflecting them as he ran down the crosswalk. A few nicked him and sprayed blood everywhere, but he ran despite them up to where all the guards were.  
The guards, astonished of this new phenomenon, dropped their guns and took out their sabers. The first set weren't quick enough, though, and were chopped to bits. Heads sailing everywhere. The second set ran to him and battled him. He struck one high in the face and another immediately after in the groin. After a sickening extraction, he whirled around and made four slice marks in a guard's chest before the guard crumpled to the floor. Cloud then somersaulted in the air over the heads of two guards and then chopped them in half. The third set surprised him and actually got him in the back. He then turned and kicked his attacker over the edge.   
A saber whirled around his head, almost hitting him. He deflectd the next blow, and then impaled the sword into the guard's belly. He sidestepped from another saber attack and lopped off the guard's head.  
At this point, a loud voice boomed, "Cease! That is enough!"  
Cloud knew the voice and turned to see President ShinRa standing before and totally taken aback. He then put on a sly expression and said," I knew you were the best pick for Captain. Almost rivaled Sephiroth."  
"No one did." Cloud's sword now dripped bright red unrecognizable goo on the floor.  
"You're right, he was one of a kind.  
"I noticed back there that you're pretty good at dodging bullets. And, I'd like to add, pretty good at dismembering bodies. SOLDIER has turned you into a hardcore assassin. However, I am a bit puzzled as to why you quit and joined..." his hand waved impatiently to Barret and Tifa crouched by the tower "..this group. I've forgotten their names."  
"Are you serious? We're about to destroy your second reactor. Surely you can't be that much of a dumbass not to know our own names."  
"You know, you're exactly right. I have forgotten _your_ name, to be precise. The face I can only recognize.  
"But you see, exSOLDIER, your actions are merely trivial. Merely...irrelevant." He laughed, "I'd love to say that you are wasting your time. You see, ShinRa Corporations, it is just a tad bit above your reach. Above the reach of all you slime! You may have sneaked past me twice, but the third time is always the charm; and, after this shit blows the next mission will be your last, and I shall humbly prosecute the lot of you myself when that time comes."  
He then stopped and thought of something. Whatever ran through his mind at that stage made him smile and he continued, "I see you are standing on the pinnacle of doom, Captain."  
Cloud looked down and saw that the crosswalk he was standing on suspended itself directly above the crypt-like structures of the Sector Five Slums. His heart began to beat rapidly. From the core tower, he heard faintly Tifa yelling his name out.  
ShinRa continued to smile, tilted his head to the side, and pulled out a grenade. Cloud jolted backwards as ShinRa threw the bomb on the crosswalk; and, on impact, the bomb blew a section of the crosswalk to smithereens. Fragments exploded onto Cloud's skin, sending his blood spraying everywhere. He turned to quickly cover his face from stray missles, but he was not quick enough to have his cheek rip open.  
The floor below him went under, and he dropped into a weightless void. He felt nothing below or around him, except an intense heat enveloping him and whiplashes of metal striking his body.   
As he fell, a sharp pain, sharper than anything he ever felt before, sliced into his right arm. He was actually able to grip the object that sliced his arm, and he noticed it was broken metal pole connected to what remained of the crosswalk. He could see a bloody hole in his skin, from where he had scraped the pole's texture.  
A grenade fragment sliced his forehead as he looked up into President ShinRa's smiling face. The latter looked on and chuckled, "Happy landings, exSOLDIER!"  
A mechanical voice in the high structures of the reactor crackled out that there was exactly two minutes left before total destruction. The remaining guards left the reactor, and a presidential helicopter appeared from the slums and took ShinRa away.  
The end was in sight.  
He looked over to the wide-eyed faces of his friends and nodded to Barret. Without saying another word, Barret Wallace picked up a screaming Tifa in his arms and went as quickly as he could down the ladder, swiftly hopped over a small platform, and then jump into the dark subway below.   
The mechanical voice rang "thirty seconds" into his head as he silently watched them leave. He saw Tifa, helplessly bawling and screaming, and he realized that he should have done something with her when they had the chance. He cursed himself out as lay a few seconds in memory. His right arm was losing blood, and he wondered why he didn't just let go. It would hurt like hell having his arm rip off the metal hook, but he didn't give a damn anymore.  
He hung there and waited.  
The countdown ended then, and the bomb went off.  
The core tower imploded, and then drastically emitted its millions upon millions of broken metal shards in all directions. This action created a massive shockwave that ripped huge holes in the surrounding structures and walls of the reactor. Electricity lines snapped, water pipes burst, fusillades exploded, and massive fires broke out.  
Cloud saw it all and then let go of the hook.  
His body writhed under the pressure of sliding off the bloody metal, and then it fell through the air. Weightless, he felt, totally weightless. Falling at astronomical speeds, he plunged into the heart of the slums, the burning reactor crumbling above him. 


	4. Chapter Four

**CHAPTER FOUR  
  
** Darkness.  
A suffocating void, dreamless and motionless. Not a sound, not a single patch of light, not an uttered breath nor a solemn whisper. Not a single instance of life.  
Except for one thing: pain.  
It was everywhere, and Cloud Strife swam through it unabided and defenseless. Numbness had usurped his body, and he only drifted. Drifted in suspension. Hanging over nothing. His eyes bloodshot, closed, murky-- death closing them ever so gently. The pupils strained to turn left and right to try in vain to focus on anything that might trigger hope to the brain, but they failed. His breathing slowed dramatically to the point where it seemed a lifetime between each exhalement.  
He drifted on, submerged in the bloodless, colorless void.  
Something happened then, something jolted into his body and awoke his senses. He became aware of a soothing liquid pouring into his veins, trickling up and down his left arm, racing with terrific speed throughout his bloodstream. An unusual and peculiar drug was quenching his body, and his breathing started to escalate; his heart which had momentarily seemed to cease its rhythm began thumping with a vengeance. A faint lightness appeared to his vision, and his fingers felt cool earth beneath him. He found that he lying on his back, and something had a hold of him around his neck. His eyes then detected a dark, unrecognizable shape against the brightening atmosphere, and he strained them to try to see what it was.  
The liquid had thoroughly travelled throughout his body, and he felt rejuvination in his muscles and tendons. The numbness died from its grasps on his arms, and he moved his right arm in front of his face, taking note of a faint golden color on them.  
Suddenly, a familiar high voice broke the silence. "Cloud, are you alright?"  
What was that voice? he wondered. He brought his arm down and looked at the shape. His eyes caught the pink flashes of color, a hint of red surrounding the pink, and a long trail of brown color from the top of the figure braided all the way down to the floor.  
"Aeris," he said softly.

Aeris Gainsborough looked in tender sympathy as this man she was healing looked at her with a curious and loving expression. She was overjoyed that he had recovered from his injuries, the new emotion quickly replacing the frightening experience she had just had.  
Not ten minutes ago was she kneeling over her flower bed tending the precious roses with utmost care when the world suddenly went apocalyptic and Cloud Strife came crashing down through the roof of her church. The two dozen flowers he had squashed from his fall were dead and ugly now, but that did not concern her for the moment. She had immediately cried out in terror when she had saw him land with a sickening plop on the bed. He wasn't dead...but he looked it.  
His head had been pure red, from where he had crashed headfirst in the wooden roof. Wood fragments were embedded in his skull, and she could see a part of the bone protruding amongst the flesh. She thought he might have been blinded, because both eyes had been covered in blood and a large gash lay just below his right eye. The long trails of blood had oozed down his throat and had seeped into his clothes. His shirt was torn and burnt, his skin underneath had been raw and scraped with thousands of cuts, all open. Both of his arms were bloody, and one of them had a gaping hole in it. He looked like he had walked through Hell itself.  
Instinctively, she pulled out the same bottle she had used on him at Sector One and quickly administered the medicine. She saw that he was still miraculously alive; though, she found that extremely hard to believe. When he had fallen through the roof, he had made impact headfirst. The force of the roof shredding around him turned his body around in a circle. He had then hit and ricocheted off a metal pipe and then bounced off the second floor staircase before slamming hard on his back in the small bed of roses on the floor of the church.  
While she was giving him the cure, the only sign of life she had noticed from him was a slow, struggling rise of his chest. His mouth moved ever so slightly to try to form a sound, but none came.  
She had blocked out everything around her and had become totally consumed in healing and reviving this poor man who had given her extra money for just one flower. When she saw he was coming back, she had then recognized a small trail of a tear near her lip. She declined on wiping it away and instead allowed more to trickle down her pretty face. He now saw the church, the flower bed, and Aeris. He worked his fingers around, pumping the blood back into them, and rubbed his eyes. He then looked into Aeris's beautiful face and saw the long lines of tears slowly working their way down her cheek to her neck. He brought his hand to her cheek and wiped the lines away.  
She smiled and held his hand in a soft squeeze. "I thought you were dead," she said softly. "Your head was a ripe avocado."  
With his free hand, he rubbed his face where it had previously bled profusely. "That was like magic. How did you do that?"  
She laughed. "You answered that."  
He looked at her. "You said that little green bottle of yours was called...Cur-Curaga..I think. What is that?"  
"Oh, Curaga's one of the best aids for curing severe symptons like what you just experienced. It's basically a medicine that is very potent-- if that is the correct word. Very rare, too. I..doubt you could find these bottles at the local corner store."  
Cloud looked into her eyes, which were bright green and glowing. "Well, I don't think I can thank you enough for your hospitality, Aeris. You have truly done an incredible thing for me."  
She blushed and responded, "Oh, that was just quick thinking and timing for me. But.. it was quick thinking and timing that saved your life. You're extremely lucky, Cloud."  
He smiled, and then felt something poking him in the back. He looked down to see a gnarled remnant of a flower stem. "I wish I could say the same for your flower here, I-- whoa." When he had gazed at the flower, he had taken notice of the rather large garden the flower had come from. It was a blooming garden right in the middle of the church, stretching itself from the front row pews all the way to the preist's podium on the far side-- a wide array of yellow and orange gems. "Wow. I've never seen these in this city before. How do you manage this?"  
"If one puts his or her mind to it, he or she can accomplish anything."  
He thought about that and figured that that could be useful to him in the future. He got up and felt the muscles cracking in his back. Fully erect, he rubbed his neck withn his hand and took in the full view of the church.  
It was dilapidated and stale-looking, but at the same time beautiful. It had only one large room with the entrance doors to the south-- which contained paintings of angels on them-- and an open doorway leading to a staircase in the northern side. The staircase led to the second floor that was wooden. This floor had seen better days, for a large chunk of its floor was in pieces. Down below in the vast room, the most obvious feature was the flower bed; but as Cloud scanned the area, he saw about a dozen pews lined up in two columns to the south. Most were pulpy and rotting, but nevertheless evoked a sense of passion to the room, giving it a haunting feeling. Over by the preist's podium was a wall etched in murals of angels and prophets.  
Light crept in from the stained-glass windows located on all four walls, instilling a heavenly atmosphere. As he walked on the tiled floor, he noticed a shaft of light coming from above, and he looked up to see the gaping hole in the roof-- where, he figured, he had fallen.  
"This church is beautiful, Aeris. Do you come here often?"  
She placed her hands behind her back and walked up to him. "Everyday. Every chance I get I come here and tend to my flowers."  
"Everyday, huh? All your life?"  
She hesitated. "Most of it."  
He turned and watched her as she kneeled over to her garden and lightly caressed the petals of her flowers. She then stopped and thought of something. "Cloud, you fell from above. That means that you were on that reactor then, huh?"  
"I was." He began to have an uneasy feeling. The thought of revealing to her his membership in a well-known terrorist group was not at all flattering.  
"What were you doing up there?" She looked at him with curiousity, her eyes studying his face, studying every feature.  
"Ever heard of AVALANCHE?"  
To his surprise, she smiled. "That's a very honorable job."  
"Honorable? What're you talking about? The destruction of that reactor could have wiped out this whole Sector. Wiped out every man, woman, and child breathing in this area. I mean, sure we're ridding the Sectors of ShinRa's control; but we're not exactly the _good_ guys here."  
"That's where you're wrong. On two accounts. You see, you guys are an icon to the younger generations around here. I mean, they absolutely adore you people for your work and bravery. The parents, they too commemorate you for your actions.  
"You see, what you probably hear on the news, AVALANCHE's actions are disturbing the populace, tearing homes apart, and turning everybody off-- do you hear that?"  
"Yeah, all the time. Can't turn on the television without seeing that."  
"It's manipulation. ShinRa's trying to win the slum population over to better make himself appealing for other metropolises. On the outside he succeeds, because he has power; but, on the inside, the side with more meaning, he fails. Fails miserably. Cloud, you and all your followers, you all are the life and breath of these people. They love you, they adore you. If something were to happen to your group, my gosh, there would be a massive riot against ShinRa Corporations."  
He looked at her in disbelief. "A riot? Come on, we're not that special for that to happen."  
A serious expression crept on her face that made him believe. "Want to bet? These people love you, Cloud. I'm surprised you don't realize that."  
He stared at a mural of an angel, a million thoughts racing through his mind. "Even if there were a revolt in our name, SOLDIER and the Turks would wipe them all out in the blink of an eye."  
She shook her head. "That doesn't matter. It would still look bad for ShinRa, and higher matters would start to take control."  
He thought about that and remembered the last things President ShinRa told him. He wondered if the third time AVALANCHE tried to pull something off and failed whether or not a revolt happened amongst the people of the slums.  
"That may be true," he said, "but situations could change if any more reactors blow, causing them to crash down to the slums below. Speaking of which, how come this Sector is still intact. Why didn't the reactor wipe out this Sector?"  
She looked at him funny. "Don't you know your own city well?"  
He scratched his head.  
"Most of the sectors are built above the city, while some are delved deep in radioactive pools, therefore having no effect on the city. The ones that have an effect on the city like Sector Five and Seven are supported by pillars. The pillars are strong enough to hold up these massive reactors, even if they blow up. The explosions don't even weaken them, and the slums below stay free and unaffected. Weren't you briefed on that?"  
"Apparantly not, but how do you know so much about that?"  
She opened her mouth but shut it quickly. Her behavior changed suddenly, and she knelt back down to her flowers and started crawling all over the garden tending them with unneeded care.  
"Aeris?"  
"That is not important right now." She stopped inspecting her flowers and looked at him, a small smile forming on one side of her face. The look gave her a beautiful aspect to herself that made Cloud smile back. "Let's talk about something else," she said softly.  
He knelt down beside her and asked, "What about?"  
Her smile grew and her emerald eyes glowed brightly again. "Um...how about we talk about each other."  
He laughed and suggested, "Anything personal...or just out of the ordinary."  
"Ooh, out of the ordinary," (she looked at him longingly then) "for now."  
"For now, huh. Okay. Uh, before I joined AVALANCHE I was in SOLDIER."  
"I knew it."  
"How?"  
"Your eyes glow yellowish-colored. They're still pretty, but they glow that color."  
He looked at her and replied, "Mako energy. Every soldier has them. Permanent, but as long as they're still pretty."  
She smiled big and asked, "Were you in the war?"  
"Captain. Hard times, those were."  
"Well, that's another honorable trait about you. You're a jack-of-all-trades, you know that?"  
"A jack-of-all-trades, huh? Never saw that one coming."  
She laughed, then glanced over to one of the windows. A dark shape walked past the window. When she recognized what it was her smile quickly turned into a frightened expression.  
"What's wrong? Something out there?"  
She put her hands on his shoulders then and looked at him closely. "Listen to me, Cloud," her voice was full of uneasiness and her eyes lost the glowing color, "please, you've got to get me out of here. That man out there, he's trying to get me. Not to kill me, but to take me to ShinRa. I can't tell you why now. Later, but please, Cloud, please get me out of here. Be my bodyguard. I'll do anything for you, anything. Just please get me out of here."  
"Alright, alright," he answered her in a soothing voice, "don't be frightened or worried. Whoever this punk is, I won't let him get you, you hear me? If you want to do something for me in return, that'll be up to you. For now, though, rest assured. I got this under control."  
She brought back her beautiful smile and kissed him on the cheek. At the point a loud banging noise sounded at the church's door. The church doors echoed their continous blows as whoever was outside the building strained himself to open the mechanism. Finally the banging stopped, and silence lingered. Faintly, Cloud heard an object being placed by the foot of the door, and simultaneously a loud ticking noise.   
A few seconds later, the object turned out to be a bomb as it blew the church door into infinity. The surrounding walls caved inward when the door flew in pieces off its hinges. The fragments of the door spewed all over the pews and the adjacent aisle, and some cracked the nearby windows and scraped a jagged path into the stained-glass frame.  
Light flooded through the now gaping hole in the church wall. Intense light. Suddenly, a tall dark form invaded the light and looked into the church. He had a thin object in his right hand that stretched to the floor. Hints of glowing gems shone in the thin object.  
The intruder entered the church and stopped just inside the building. Cloud could barely make out his profile, but he began to have a suspicion. The object was most obviously a cane, a gem-encrusted cane at that. The man was tall, had fiery red hair, and wore a dark suit. Suddenly, the stillness and peacefulness of the church was broken by the man's voice, "Cloud Strife," ( he began walking towards Cloud, his cane echoing on the tile and glinting a crystal color) "fancy meeting you again."  
He walked all the way down the aisle and stopped at the last pew, a yard away from Cloud, a devilish grin on his face. "I see you found the Ancient, or to your better terms, the girl I'm trying to get."  
"Reno, you son of a bitch," Cloud snarled and brandished his four-foot metal blade.   
The Turk laughed a cruel, hearty laugh and ran a golden hand through his red hair. He was wearing a dark blue pinstripe suit that contrasted the bright shock of hair on his head. Shiny brown leather shoes peeked out from under his pants. "Ah, pulling out your blade on me, I see how it is."  
"What do you want, Reno?"  
"Heh, isn't it obvious? The Ancient is needed at once. ShinRa highly demands it. I don't know what he's planning to do with her-- something wicked, I bet."  
"And you're the delivery boy."  
"Mm..you could say that."  
"I could say a lot of things right now."  
Reno smiled and laid his crystal cane atop his right shoulder. "Yeah, but you wouldn't, couldn't, mind you. I'm too damn important for your childish complaints."  
"You're not important at all. You're just ShinRa's lackey hired to do his dirty work while he reaps all the benefits. Well, hear me out. You take one more step towards this innocent girl and I'm going to shove this blade up your ass."  
The smile faded away for a moment, then returned maliciously again. "ShinRa's lackey, huh? That sounds kind of interesting."  
"Well, it's what you are. There's no better word to describe you."  
"How about persistent?" He took a step towards Aeris.  
"How about stupid?" Cloud's sword flashed with lightning speed in the air, but at the same time something happened to Reno's cane. Right as Cloud raised his sword, Reno twirled his cane in a big arc and a transformation occurred. The jeweled top elongated and formed a brass handle, while the crystal body of the cane expanded and formed a sharp point at the bottom. The shininess of the weapon now gleamed intensely bright inside the dusky church, like a bright star on a black, cloudless night. This all happened in a few seconds, and right as Cloud prepared to decapitate Reno, the latter's crystal sword made contact with the Buster Sword.  
The loud echo of the impact of the two swords remained in the church surrounding them as the two men stared coldly into each other's face. The Crystal Sword reflected brightly in Cloud's metal weapon, and the brightness of the sword was causing him to strain his eyes to see Reno's smiling face. The owner of the crystal sword laughed and said, "That's not an interesting word."  
With that, Reno somersaulted in the air backwards and landed beside a pew. With his sword, he picked up a broken-off portion of it and flung the missle at Cloud's face. Cloud deflected the blow, recoiled, and swung his sword at Reno's face. The latter simply tilted his head back, letting the blade miss his face by his inches. His foot, meanwhile, propelled Cloud backward on impact of the stomach. Cloud's back scraped up against a jagged corner of a pew's seat, and a thin trail of blood ran down his back.  
Seconds later, the crystal sword slashed at the pew, and Cloud dived to the floor to miss the crash of the sword and the flying debris of the furniture. Reno then grabbed Cloud's tattered shirt, spat in his face, and flung him down the aisle. Cloud's chin smacked the tile, and he skidded across it, his sword travelling to the back of the church. Reno spun his sword in a few arcs, shouted a death yell, and somersaulted into the air with the sharp point of his blade aimed downwards.  
With quick thinking, Cloud grabbed a torn-off seat with his feet and propped the back end over his body. The crystal sword jammed its length into the strong material of the seat and barely made its way through to Cloud's body-- he could see the gleaming edge just a tad bit above his naval. A split second after that, Cloud yelled out and twisted the seat sharply to the left. Reno's body which had previously hung in an odd position-- he had suspended upside-down in mid-air with his hand still clutching the sword as it was inserted into the chair-- now jackknived sharply to the left, and his head crashed into a pew, a trail of blood spraying into the air.  
Cloud kicked off the seat, flipped into the air, and ran to grab his sword. As soon as he grabbed it, Aeris gave a cry and Cloud turned to see a somersaulting Reno-- his eyes now flashing an angry hellfire shine-- sailing towards him. Before he could react, Reno's body straightened up and he slammed into Cloud. Reno threw him against the wall, leaving a crack in the wall and a splatter of blood from Cloud's open wound. He then plunged his sword at Cloud, but struck wall instead. The Buster Sword was too big to fight in their cramped position, so he dropped it and lunged out an iron fist at Reno. Reno caught it and twisted it, and Cloud let out a yell. The former then backhanded Cloud savagely, breaking a tooth. Reno then grabbed Cloud's shirt, raised him up high in the air-- here Cloud was amazed at the surprising unhumanlike strength of his opponent-- and then slammed him facefirst onto the tile.  
Stars twinkled in his vision, and blood poured out of nose. He tried to prop himself up on his elbows, but this made him nauseous and he coughed up blood through his mouth. He lay in a patch of sunlight from a nearby window, and he felt vaguely the warmness of the sun on his back-- or was that his own blood from the three open scrape wounds?  
Reno stepped into the light, a smirk on his face. "I've heard stories about you, stories about your time in SOLDIER. They say you are fast. That you can dodge bullets and dismember bodies in the blink of an eye. Hm. Well, you're not too fast for me."  
Cloud felt his sword by his foot. He didn't think he had the energy left to get it, but he figured that would be useless anyway; Reno's sword would plunge into his skull and that would be that. Nice bodyguard job, he thought to himself.   
Something then struck his mind at that moment. "What are you? During that clash, you were doing things I've never seen any person do before."  
Reno smiled. "Now that's interesting, isn't it? What do you care about it, anyway?" He didn't seem to notice Cloud's sword at all. He, instead, turned his attention to the Ancient. "Boy, she is beautiful, isn't she? Hojo is going to have a fun time with her."  
"Hojo?"  
"Oh, yes, a fun time indeed."  
Something about that statement made Cloud angry, and as he worked both feet around the handle of his sword, one on top and one on the bottom he thought about that more and more. Finally, Reno returned to smile at Cloud's position; but the smile faded quickly away.  
The Buster Sword, with all its massive bulk, sliced the air like a blow on a whistle and sliced through both of Reno's knees. Blood splashed the floor, the walls, and Cloud's face in huge gashes. The owner of the Buster Sword then, with all his strength heaved himself up and punched Reno in the face. He crashed through the window, still clutching his crystal sword. As the glass cut his back into ribbons and sliced his neck and skull apart, Reno continued to stare coldly at Cloud's face, leaving the latter somewhat taken aback. The body landed on the grass admist a pool of blood and broken glass. Cloud panted and took each of his breaths with slow rhythm. The body of the Turk did not move. For a long moment, Cloud continued to stare at Reno's bloodstained pinstripe-clad body. He had known this guy for a long time. The army had been fond of Reno and his group, and they graciously congratulated them and praised them whenever a Turk appeared. The killing of this man did not leave him very satisfactory of his actions-- then again, killing wasn't his number one thing to do in life anyway. Cloud felt actually somewhat pained himself for the death of this man, and that took a lot of compassion-- considering Reno's background.  
A soft, cold hand touched his shoulder, and he jumped. Aeris looked at him in awe and admiration. Her eyes were pure green, glowing like the crystal sword had glowed, with a radiance that was heavenly in itself. "You were amazing back there. I've never seen anybody do what you just did." She wrapped her arms around him and brought his body close to hers. The action began to have an affect on him again.  
"I told you I'd protect you, didn't I?"  
"And I believed you." She then pulled herself out of their embrace. "There might be more of them coming. My house is just down the road, secluded from the street. Can you take me to it, please?'"  
He reached behind her neck and stroked her hair. "Of course I will, Aeris. You know I will."  
A different smile appeared on her face. One that seemed to Cloud, a smile of love. He shrugged that idea off and followed her out the church door. 


	5. Chapter Five

**CHAPTER FIVE**  
  
Slum.  
Just the name of that gives a bitter, disgusting connotation. Nothing is more pitiful nor more pathetic than that word. It spells decay and decrepiteness. Decay in the sense of the rundown, rotting shacks and termite-infested wooden mobile homes. Decrepit in the sense of the people-- _the _poorest people on the planet.  
These eight massive areas of Midgar are the last stops for all who enter. No one leaves the slums if they choose to stay in Midgar. Why is this? Well, the upper part of Midgar-- dominated by the tower of ShinRa Corporations-- is an expensive piece of property. There is certainly nothing better of a property than Upper Midgar, though; and that is what keeps attracting large quantities of people every year to immigrate into the metropolis. Granted, some have enough money to make it up there; but, most suffer the consequences of being manipulated and are forced to duel the elements beneath ShinRa Corp.  
And here they toiled for the rest of their lives. Here they fight the voracious crickets that swarm upon the slum people's farms-- what little money they can muster to produce a single row of food-- and destroy the ripening crop. Here they fix and repair their shacks every day, fixing the same problem they fixed yesterday. Here their children run short-lived lives, contracting the smallest illnesses and suffering greatly from them. The death rate soars, but the influx of people swarming to claim some sort of wealth up in Upper Midgar help raise the slum population and always manages to maximize the slum total.  
This is what Cloud saw as he wiped the blood off of his face, and Aeris healed his sprained hand.  
Dirty children in the streets, rolling around in the deep mud puddles, earthworms sliding off their bodies, their hair a knotted, mud-splattered mess. Their parents, always with grim and hard faces, silently sweeping the same patch of dirt from their houses. The houses themselves-- tiny shacks or tents would be better words-- sagging from unbalanced weights; and most were, if made of metal material, rusting and missing boards, and some had vital parts of its frame practically eaten away. Bandits were everywhere in the slums, desperate people these bandits were. They had simply grown tiresome from their depravity, so greediness was a great asset to them. Cloud saw one at that moment knock a woman out on the head and steal her hard-earned five gil from her hands.  
"These people look likely to snap against ShinRa at any minute," he mused to himself. Aeris caught it under his breath.  
"AVALANCHE helps keep their spirits up. Without you, they don't have anyhting to fall back on and so suffer on their own property."  
"Damn."  
"I know, but they are slightly fond of me, too. Those green bottles I gave you, I give them those, too. As many children I find, I give them the Curaga, because-- if you think about it-- those poor boys and girls are probably swarming with diseases galore."  
"Contagious?"  
Aeris shrugged. "I don't know. It's a risk, but I don't care about that."  
Cloud gave her a funny look and asked, "You have any more of those bottles, by any chance? Sorry if I'm depleting them all, but-"  
"Oh, that's okay. I have more at home. Speaking of which, we're almost there. How's your arm?"  
He looked at it and smiled. "Well, I don't know what you did to it, but it feels as good as new."  
"Hm. Leave it to a guy to brawl it out, all macho style, but when he gets hurt guess who he looks up to."  
"Hey, I don't know anything about medical things. Cut me some slack."  
She laughed. "Oh, huh? So, if you had gotten a serious injury, you would have cried like a baby and died there from an unbandaged wound?"  
"Well.....crying like a baby?"  
"Yes, a baby. I swear you men are all the same."  
"Well, you women keep dating us, so you must obviously like us."  
She scoffed, but with a plesant air to it. "Heh. We just feel sorry for you."  
"Uh-huh, sure." He pushed her lightly to the side.  
She returned the push, a little harder than his. "You men are the sorriest things on the planet," she laughed.  
"Oh? The sorriest? That's kind of a high recognition there."  
"Oh, please," she giggled.  
"Oh please nothing," he laughed and started messing with her hair. For a couple minutes, both of them just stood there laughing and messing with each other like a couple crazy people-- Cloud joshing her around and Aeris bopping him lightly on the head.  
Suddenly, they found themselves in a provocative situation: Aeris against a brick wall and Cloud right up next to her, his hands supporting the wall and his face inches from hers. She looked up at him and giggled a little nervously. He cleared his throat and stepped back a little. He started to say something, but decided against it.  
Aeris felt the same way, but she looked over Cloud's shoulder and saw a bright meadow in the background. "Ah, that's my house over there."  
Cloud perked up. "Oh, that's cool. Um, wow, that looks like a nice house from over here."  
"Well, let's go over there."  
"Uh..y-yeah, that sounds good."

A beautiful sight.  
Nestled in the crook of a small mountain slope was built a two-story house. Set aside from the slums by a long wooden bridge, the house was a marvelous piece of construction. It had a pink roof that strectched to the ground almost in the form of an A-frame. Gothic windows were cut in the roof's texture, and each window had a windowsill with a wonderful display of orchids and lilies. Crisp brick walls connected the roof to the soft earth, and on three sides of the house were large flower-containing bushes.  
Another bridge connected the plot of land to another massive plot of land. On that side was an unbelievable garden-- the likes of which Midgar had never seen before. Row upon row, column by column lay flower after flower, each one blooming with such heavenly glow that Cloud had to cover his eyes.  
Beneath the bridge ran, to Cloud's surprise, a steadliy flowing river. The water was pure and crystal clear, something not found in Midgar on a regular day.  
"Are my eyes deceiving me, Aeris?"  
She laughed and put her arm on his shoulder. "No, they're seeing the truth. This is the only place in Midgar worth seeing."  
"How did you come across it?"  
"My...mom and I discovered it when we had to move here. There's a waterfall down in the back. If you listen closely, you can probably hear it."  
"A waterfall." They became silent for a while, slowly listening to the gently flowing water. The faint sound of a crashing waterfall was heard, and Cloud smiled-- this truly was the only place in Midgar worth seeing.  
Aeris's hand slowly traced itself down Cloud's back and went down his arm to his hand. "Do your veins always pop out like this?" She asked it while she fingered one softly.  
A lump grew in his throat. "U-Uh, almost always. They always seem to be there."  
She smiled and looked at him. Something is on her mind, he thought.  
"Come in and meet my mom."

Fragrances galore flourished in his face when he opened the door. They were pleasant-smelling, but a little too strong. The living room was quaint and inviting with paintings of famous people hanging on each wall. A flower wallpaper gave the paintings a nice contrast, and the pots with fresh tulips in them on each table helped create a unique image as well. There was no carpet, nor any rugs; but the tile itself was richly designed and pretty to look at.   
Not a single thing was wrong with Aeris's house.  
Aeris brushed a stray hair away from her face and yelled, "Mom, I'm home!"  
A reply sounded from upstairs, and a couple seconds later a woman came down the stairs carrying a basket of clothes. "Oh, Aeris, I'm so glad you made it home. It's almost time for supper, and I was getting so worried, because- oh! who is this, Aeris?"  
Aeris turned to Cloud and smiled. "Mom, this is Cloud. We met at the church, and he's now my bodyguard."  
A worried look sprang immediately into the woman's eyes. "Bodyguard? Aeris. What happened today?"  
"There's nothing to worry about, mom. Cloud stopped him good. I don't think he's going to bother me again."  
"But..Aeris..there will be more and- did he _really_ kill him?"  
"The body's outside the church right now, mom. There's nothing to worry about."  
The woman looked at Cloud, and a smile appeared on her face again. "Thank you, Cloud, for saving Aeris." She put down the clothes basket and extended her hand. "My name's Elmyra, and it's a pleasure to finally meet a decent man like you."  
"Pleasure to meet you too, Miss Elmyra."  
She smiled big and picked up the basket. "He's a gentleman, too. Please make yourself at home. You look beat-- well, I can imagine after doing away with one of those people. There's a guest room with a bed upstairs. If you're hungry, help yourself to anything you want here."  
He widened his eyes. "Ah, well...I don't want to trouble you or anything, uh-"  
"Oh, Cloud, it's no trouble at all. You've done a wonderful thing for me and Aeris. I can't thank you enough. Enjoy your stay here." She went out the door to clean her clothes in the river.  
He turned to Aeris. "Why that's very nice of you two to have me here. I, uh, don't think I deserve such treatment."  
She tilted her head to the side and asked, "Why do you say that?"  
"I just...don't think of myself as a..uh.._grand_ hero."  
She smiled and rubbed his cheek with her hand. "I do."  
He couldn't think of anything to say, so he watched her walk up the stairs to the bedrooms. She called down, "I'll make your bed for you. There's some drinks in the fridge if you want any, Cloud. We got soda, water...maybe a couple beers or so. Have your pick."  
Cloud raised an eyebrow and said to himself, "A beer or two?"  
He shrugged and walked up the stairs. He called up to her, "That's alright, thanks though. I..think I just want to get to sleep. Being knocked out for a while back at the church didn't really do anything for me."  
When he got to the second floor, he saw Aeris making his bed in one of the rooms. At that minute, something happened to him and in a brief second he felt in love. she had let down her hair from its braided form. It now lay in a marvelous fashion all the way down her back. He knew, though, that he had to control himself. She probably didn't want to stray down that path. Or what if she wanted to?  
He shrugged that idea off and went into the room.  
She looked up at him. "Where are you headed, Cloud? I've been wondering that for awhile."  
He had to focus a little bit before he could answer. "U-Uh, to Sector...Seven. Yeah, Seven. There's a bar there, where I'm supposed to be."  
"Tifa's _Seventh Heaven_?"  
"A-Ah, yeah, but how did you know that?"  
"That place is famous-- for maybe more than one reason."  
"Well, it gets a lot of seedy people, but.. there's nothing about it that's seedy."  
She smiled. "I didn't say it was _seedy_. I said it was just.. famous."  
He looked to the floor. "Well, that's where I'm headed. I guess, tomorrow, bright and early."  
She nodded her head, the smile still on her face. "Mm-hmm. Bright and early." Finished with the bed, she went over to him. A scented perfume came from her body that tested Cloud to his limit. "I personally can't thank you enough, Cloud, for what you've done for me today." she cupped his face with her cool hands. "Thank you," she whispered and kissed him lightly on the lips. She exited the room, and he watched her body sway back and forth as she went into her room and shut the door.  
Damn, she's beautiful, he said to himself.  
He closed his door and jumped onto the bed. It smelled like perfume, but it was a bed and he didn't give a damn if he woke up smelling like a girl in the morning. Sleep lassoed him almost immediately, the last thing on his mind being the sweet, soft lips of Aeris on his own.

_ The Wutai front was all in front of him. Swords raised, eyes a bloodless stare. Expressionless faces glared at the Midgarian front, as the latter tried in vain to counterattack from the surprise move the samurai made on them. Hundreds of Midgarians lay dead in their own pools of blood, most in pieces, some without heads; the cannon-propelled blasts had jarred the canyon headquarters of ShinRa's forces at 0300 hours.  
Now, Cloud Strife, the new captain of the army met his first match and he charged his men at the onslaught.   
Swords clanged, bodies sliced in half. Someone's eye went flying into the heavens. Midgarians and Wutains alike fell in pieces on the red rock, tripping others into their deaths. One by one, each wave of both opponents were cut in unstoppable blood-splattering. New waves were cut down by friendly crossfire, swords flew out of the owner's grasp and chopped others into bits.  
Suffering from three open wounds, Cloud looked up and quickly regretted doing so, for at the moment a sword sliced his stomach apart, blood splattering everywhere. Sound diminished, time stopped. He fell onto the ground, landing into his own blood. His eyes were covered in blood, but he made out a dim figure clutching a dripping sword. All action was soundless and seemingly unaware of the figure's prescence.  
The figure was John ShinRa.  
"You fucker!!" Cloud yelled, but the yell was not powerful enough and President ShinRa drove the sword into Cloud's throat.  
_ He woke up screaming, sweat covering the bed.

Nightmares were common to him, ever since the war's end, but he never understood them. He never thought that they had meaning.   
This one though...  
..this one had meaning.

The house was quiet, and he figured they were deep sleepers. He looked down at the bed. Where it had been fresh-smelling four hours ago, it was now sweat-stained to the point of aversion.  
The house was too quiet, and that disturbed him as he looked at the fresh new clothes on his bed. They were nice fabrics, and they were probably that of Elmyra's late husband. A white buttoned shirt, a pair of dark brown pants, and black shoes.  
"Not bad, "he said quietly and put them on.  
They fit perfectly and he was amazed at this. A bottle of Curaga lay on the desk drawer, and he put that in his pants pocket. He sheathed his sword, which had been cleaned somehow without his knowing of it, and opened the door. A light shone in Aeris's room, and he stopped in his tracks. Thinking quickly, he went back into his room, shut the door, and went to the window.  
He opened it and looked down. There was nobody outside, and the stillness was awesome in retrospect. There was an intricate latticework running along the wall that was durable enough to climb down on. He started to climb down when he thought of something. He went back inside.  
Aeris was a beautiful girl, and he felt kind of terrible to be leaving her like this. He pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down a note. He opened his door and stopped. The light was off, a good sign-- maybe. He tiptoed quietly to her door and positioned the paper on her doorknob and went back to the window.  
Not looking at the ground, he descended the latticework. A sharp point in the structure caught his wrist and he cursed softly to himself. He waved his hand to still the pain and then resumed descending. He jumped to the bottom, straightened out his fine, new clothes and turned around.  
"Bright and early, huh?"   
Cloud shouted, jumped back, and hit his head on a protruding piece of the latticework. As he was rubbing his head, he saw her barely holding in her laughter, not in the least bit upset with his sudden desicion. "A-Aeris, the heck are you doing out at this hour? Pretty girls like you need their beauty sleep, don't they?"  
"Ah, cut the crap, Cloudy," she said nicely with a smile, "you and I both know that you were going to do this. Mom knew, too."  
"D'oh," Cloud said, worried." A-Ah, I'm sorry for this, but-"  
"No need to be sorry. I argued with her last night anyway. She didn't want me to go, but I won the situation. Cloudy, I shall personally escort you to Sector Seven. I go there a lot myself, anyway."  
Cloud started to protest, but he knew he would lose so he said, "Do you really know the way?"  
Aeris laughed, "Just come on, Cloud."  
She ran off into the slums, her long braided hair waving behind her, leaving Cloud shaking his head in wonder.

Sector Six was a small section of basically no human population at all. A pile of wreckage from unknown sources. Plans of reconstruction were presumably underway, but ShinRa most likely didn't give a damn about the slum's condition. The two journeyers made their way slowly through the wreckage over to what appeared to be a small playground. It was now almost morning and Aeris looked a little tired. "Hey, let's rest a bit by that swing set over there."  
Cloud cracked his neck and replied, "Fine with me."  
The playground had seen better days, but a swing set and a see-saw were still durable to rest on. A decrepit slide shaped in what appeared to be a moogle-- one of those weird cartoon things Cloud remembered seeing at the Gold Saucer-- lay in the center of the playground. A sandbox with jagged pieces of metal embedded in it lay directly behind the slide.  
"An unsuspecting kid wanders into that box, hoping to make a sandcastle, but suddenly finds a sharp metal blade up his ass, " Cloud mused to himself.  
Unfortunately, Aeris heard that and snapped, "Cloud! That's an ungentlemanly thing to say!"  
"Well, look at it. Cripes, this place needs a little work done to it."  
"Come sit by me, please." She patted the adjacent swing.  
Cloud obediently walked up to her. The swing screeched as he sat in it.  
Aeris looked a little sad. "Did you have a nightmare?"  
Cloud sucked in breath. "You heard?"  
"Oh yeah. A whole lot of cussing and screaming. Was about to come in, but I didn't want to alarm you. Do you want to tell me anything about it? It might relieve some pressure off your chest."  
"Nah, some things are better kept inside."  
"Hmmm."  
They sat silently swinging back and forth, looking at the ground. A slight breeze rolled through the playground enlightening the mood somewhat. Cloud hastily thought of things to say, and then remembered a rather important incident.  
"What was Reno after you for? As far as I can decipher from his actions, he was going to bring you to ShinRa for an experiment of some sort?"  
She sighed a mournful sigh.  
"What's wrong?"  
"Remember him calling me an Ancient?"  
"Yeah, what is that? I've been all over the world, seen a lot of people. Never heard them call themselves that."  
"That's because, I'm the last one. The only one of my kind left on this planet."  
Cloud churned that through his mind. "Wait a minute, Elmyra-"  
"She's not my mom," she said quickly. "No relation whatsoever. It's...a long story, but the point is is that I'm the last Cetra on the planet. Here's how it goes Cloud. I belong to a clan that was predominant on this planet, called the Cetra. They were very industrial and lived comfortable lives...until certain events happened. One by one each of them fell, and now look at me, I'm the last one. That's why I'm an Ancient-- I represent the only known history of my clan. The only one left."  
Cloud was totally in shock, and did not know what to make of it. However, one thing did click in his mind. "Aeris?"  
She looked at him.   
"I don't know what you are, but I'm going to find that out later. Right now, the only important thing, as I see it, is to keep you safe. You say ShinRa has been looking for you for quite a while?"  
"Everyday is another trial. Yesterday, though, I found that there is hope afterwards."  
Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Well, I may not be much into hopeful situations. During the war, I never had hope in any situation. Each day was hell, but that's not the point I'm trying to make."  
Aeris looked at him with a loving expression as he knelt down in front of her. "ShinRa will not get you, okay. Are you listening to me, because I am making an official promise here. Whatever happens, under any circumstances, you will not fall victim to any tortues that they put you under. I know this guy, Hojo. Creepy dude. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is-"  
"That you'll rescue me if I'm in danger, and protect me when I'm with you?"  
"Yes. With my life, if that comes to it."  
Tears started to come to her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, catching him by surprise. "You are the greatest man I ever met. And I know you will keep your promise. i just know it." Her mouth moved towards his, and he went along with it.  
Right as they touched, a loud sound broke the peacefulness, and a gate opened. Aeris's arms slid down Cloud's chest and both of them turned their heads to see a horse-drawn carriage enter the Sector Six slums. It had an advertisement sign on it that read _HONEYBEE INN--_ _TONIGHT'S SHOW: TIFA LOCKHEART_. Tifa, herself, was standing at the back of the carriage in a skimpy bra and panties outfit that was see-through. The carriage headed east, straight for Wall Market.  
"The hell! That was Tifa!" He stood up and watched the carriage take her away. "What in God's name is she doing?"  
Aeris stood up and looked at Cloud. "Was that the owner of _Seventh Heaven_?"  
"Y-Yeah, but...hm, something's going on. I wonder where the rest of AVALANCHE is right now. This situation doesn't look good."  
Aeris gestured to Wall Market. "Why don't we ask her then?"  
He looked at her in disbelief. "Aeris, HONEYBEE INN is a strip club. A whole crowd of sleazy men hang around that joint. D'ya really want to cross their paths?"  
"No, but you're my bodyguard, aren't you?"  
"Well...yes, but-"  
Aeris then took his arm and brought his body close to hers. "Then there's your answer. Besides you want to find out what the hell's going on, right?"  
He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I do."   
"Then let's go." She marched him down the slum road on into the gates of Wall Market-- a metropolis in its own self.

"Heidegger, our time is coming," President ShinRa said around the prescence of his giant cigar. "AVALANCHE is hiding in Sector Seven."  
The surprised General looked at him, the nervousness that he had just felt ever since the president entered the room melted away. "H-How did you come about that?"  
"Well, to answer that wonderful question, General," he mused blowing a smoke ring into the air, "we must first go back to earlier events. You see, guards are posted at every station in every Sector-- except for Six, since nobody lives there. Guards deal with passengers every day, checking their identity, feeling them up, all kinds of stuff.  
"News would get out, you see, if a member of AVALANCHE were to board the train. Odd thing is, they keep boarding our trains and we don't know how they do it...until now."  
"What, sir?"  
"One of our very own guards, our very own elite guards, has decided to stray down the road to perdition, General. The road to perdition, he has sided with AVALANCHE!"  
"The fucker!"  
"Exactly."  
"He should be killed!"  
"Exactly."  
"Exterminated!"  
"Exactly."  
"Obliterated!"  
"Exactly, but wait! who's job is it to properly screen every guard we have every couple of weeks or so?"  
"Eh...oh."  
"EXACTLY! Now, _there's _a problem now, isn't there. But, General, there is a bigger problem that has been found out and flushed out. You know Palmer, right? Hojo's assisstant. He says he has always had a sneaky suspicion of the guards posted there, one in particular. Goes by the name of Charles Smithers."  
"Oh, I know him, sir. Ignorant bastard, he is, sir."  
"Then maybe you should have canned the fucker before all this shit occured, huh!"  
Heidegger cringed, expecting a blow. None came and he looked up to see ShinRa thinking.  
"Palmer went down to Sector Seven," he continued, "and spoke with Smithers. You know Palmer has an eye for mal-doers, if that is a word. Anyway, he told me that after five sentences he knew this guy was letting AVALANCHE use his train stations with no charge or felony. Palmer brought him here and Hojo did...oh god..major stuff to him. Had his skin ripped off piece by piece, eyeballs gouged, tongue taken out, stomach impaled, heart ripped out by Hojo's own grasp. He crumpled up the dead body in a box and shipped it to the guard's family."  
Heidegger cringed.  
"But, I gave the order for it, so I don't give a shit." He blew another smoke ring and checked his watch. "My son will be coming any minute to show you his platoon of Air Combatants that will soar over Sector Seven. My guess is AVALANCHE is still down there. I am sure Cloud is dead, so they will have no problem with the rest of them.  
"General, your orders now are to work with Rufus, arrange the battle plan, and commence the action. Get to it now!"  
"Sir!" He saluted and ran off, thankful for not receiving any injuries from this meeting.  
Meanwhile, ShinRa laid back in his chair and dulled out his cigar. "Where is that prick Reno when I need him?"


	6. Chapter Six

**CHAPTER SIX  
**  
Wall Market.  
A flashy slum's version of Upper Midgar. No better way to describe it. A city within a city. The richest place in the slum sections, economically supported by ShinRa Corp-- this was the president's generous gift to the slum people for need of food or jobs or both. The place was active 24/7 and crawling with customers left and right. Immense neon signs raised ontop of glittering buildings paved the way in advertisements and promotions for new hotels or ShinRa Corp products. The buildings were eccentric and so were the stores in them. Great clothes shops and seafood restaurants, with shrimp brought fresh from Port Midgar, made up the bulk of the southern side of Wall Market. The long chain of hotels and dance clubs lay on the eastern side. Gyms and ice cream stores as well as a huge mall was on the western side. Finally, to the north, lay a weapons shop-- with a seemingly infinite supply of equipment-- a few mom and pop stores with a fairly decent array of items, and Don Corneo's Mansion.  
The last attraction on that list is a mega-hit amongst the men of the slums (a few crazy women too). A seedy penthouse high up on a hill overlooking Wall Market, with untold amount of babes under the impression that clothes are an option. Every day, every hour new girls pour in amongst an army of drooling mouths swarmed at the Mansion's gates and into the seedy paws of Mr. Don Corneo himself-- a fat, drunken playboy worth millions and all of about 4' 11". Rarely a dull moment goes on in the Mansion.  
For that matter, rarely does a dull moment go by in Wall Market. Businesses ring like crazy sashaying in new customers and booting out old ones. Gil exchanging between hands every three seconds. Fights over trivial, supercilious matters approximately three seconds more. Sometimes, the fights get interesting if more than one person gets involved-- deaths have been reported then forgotten over time.  
Rarely is there a dull moment in Wall Market.

Aeris Gainsborough knew the looks she was getting from the roaming, drunken men all around her and pressed her body close to the tall, handsome man next to her who was her bodyguard.  
Cloud Strife sensed the lusting stares men of all ages were giving to this beautiful girl beside him, and he put his arm around her in a comforting grip. He heard sigh happily to herself. Along the way, he heard general tidbits of conversation from the crowd of people.  
"Did you see that new hottie they brought in just now?"  
"Yeah, dude," one replied, "that bitch was fuckin' hot man!"  
"Her titties were rock solid," another drooled.  
"Oh, God, what I'd love to do to her," said the first man.  
"What you love to do to anybody, pig!" a woman shouted at him.  
"Hey, bitch, there's room for you right here!" he answered back patting himself.  
"Let's get out of here, Aeris."  
"Where?"  
"I don't know, anywhere but this section."  
They made their way through the southern tier of food buildings and clothes shops, when Aeris pointed out a sushi restaurant. "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning, Cloud, let's stop in."  
Cloud protested, "Aeris, we can't waste any time. I've never been in this part of town before, and I don't know where this HONEYB-"  
"Come on, Cloud, I'm starving!" She gave a pitiful look. "Besides, we may find some information in there. You know, it might help us out a little bit."  
He shook his head. "You love to work on me, don't you."  
She led him into the restaurant. "It's what I do best."  
The sushi place was crowded-- mostly of men drinking alcohol, talking about Tifa, and complaining about why the bathroom is always filled up. Every seat was taken, and the whole air was a heavy drone of burping, cursing, and laughing. A few eyes followed Aeris's figure and then went back to whatever conversation they were engaged in. A good smell of fish snaked its pathway all around the joint and almost took control of Cloud's urges.  
He had bigger things on his mind, though, and after he ordered Aeris a piece off the menu he turned his attention to the young employee at the register. "Say, do you know where the HONEYBEE INN is? A friend of mine is there, and she might be in trouble."  
The young man's eyes lighted up. "Boy, mac, if your 'friend' is in that place, she would be having no trouble at all, if you know what I mean."  
"I'm afraid I don't, my good sir."  
The man looked at him, puzzled. "Ah, come on, mac, don't be shitting me. Do you know what that place is?"  
"I know what that place is, but regardless, she's in trouble, and I need to know how to get there."  
He scoffed at him. "If you know all about it, then why don't you know where it is?"  
"I know its reputation, smartass, not where its location is."  
"All right. I don't want any trouble with you, okay. It's very easy to get there. Just avoid the crowd of people and head straight north from this restaurant. You can't miss it. Uh...may I ask why is she in trouble?"  
Cloud took Aeris's hand and said to the employee, "That's none of your business, and anyway I have no idea if she's in trouble or not. Thanks for the info, here's a tip for your time." He passed him five gil and headed out the door.  
When they got out a fight was in the process. From the evidence Cloud gathered amongst the bystanders, two men had yelled at each other for wanting the other's purchased merchandise. They then began to slug at each other's face, blood flying everywhere. While they were dueling, others quietly came over and stole their goods.  
Cloud laughed to himself and walked with Aeris northwards to the HONEYBEE INN. She was just finishing up her food, then, and she tossed it into a nearby canister. "Wasn't very good," she said glumly and wiped her lips. "Hey, do you suspect that Tifa is in trouble?"  
"Well...trouble may not be the right word. I would call it unusual. Tifa, to me, never had the slightest ambition to become a stripper. She told me herself that she hated that sleazy stuff. I don't know what to make of it, but we're about to find out.  
"How are you doing by the way? Do you feel alright walking through this...place."  
Aeris shrugged, but looked up at him and smiled. "As long as I stay by you, there's nothing for me to worry about."  
Cloud said nothing. A bright pink neon sign illuminated his vision. The strip club was enormous and so was the crowd surrounding it, all middle-aged men and a few barely legal adolescents. A tanned woman swung shirtless on a pole behind a window, her large breasts swaying and scoring points with all the men. A large line of people stood at the entrance, waiting impatiently for the bouncer at the front to let them in. Cloud then realized it would be hard to get in the place.  
He thought of something, but immediately cringed at the idea.  
"What's the matter?" Aeris asked.  
"If we're going to get anything out of this, I'm going to have to result to something... untasteful."  
"Untasteful?"  
"Yeah, I don't think these people are going to let me in, just because I need to see one of their girls."  
"So what are you suggesting?"  
Cloud looked at her and scratched his head. "It's harmless. I wouldn't let them touch you."  
Aeris laughed nervously. "I'll hold you under that, Cloud."  
They made their way past everybody, who in turn gave objecting comments, and onward to the bouncer at the door.  
"Whoa, whoa their speedracer, you'll get your chance inside at 9:00. 'Til then take yourself and your bi girlfriend there and hightail it out of here."  
"She's not bi, she's the newest addition to the Don's Mansion. Her name is Missy...Desire or something like that. I'm just a delivery boy and I need to speak with your manager on a very important issue."  
The bouncer's eyes glowed and he checked Aeris up and down. "Ah, a new addition, eh? Not bad. Not bad at all. Come with me, Mister-er-"  
"Sammy. I do business in Junon and Rocket Town."  
"Ooh, big name areas. Come right this way."  
The people in line booed slightly as they saw Cloud enter ahead of them. The bouncer hushed them up and brought out another dancer to keep them occupied.Scotch looked up from the "service" he was getting done from a busty redhead as the bouncer led Cloud and Aeris into the room. "Boss," the bouncer said, "this kid here has got business with Don Corneo. Got a new treat for him, this brunette right here. Sammy, here, also wants to talk to you about something important."  
Scotch slapped the redhead's ass as she left, and replied to the bouncer," You're dismissed. This is good news for today." He looked Aeris up and down and smiled. "Damn, you're hot. What's your name, girl?"  
"Er-- Desire. Missy...er..Desire." she looked at Cloud with a look that said that was the dumbest thing she had ever heard.  
"Ooh, Desire, huh. That's sexy. It'll go well for tonight. Unfortunately, the Don has to look you over a bit before you come here. Some kind of needless interview." He looked at Cloud. "You escorting her, er-"  
"Sammy, and that's right, sir. Picked her up at Junon. Brought her here. End of story."  
"Nice, care for a smoke."  
Cloud shrugged. "Why not?" He took it, lighted it, and blew a blue smoke ring.  
Scotch drank a bottle of vodka and asked, "What's this important topic, Sammy?"  
"You got a new girl in this morning, right? Name of Tifa Lockheart."  
Scotch downed the bottle. "Names escape me, but bodies don't."  
"Well...she had long dark brown hair. Clad in skimpy underwear. Rode in on a carriage-"  
"Oh, yeah, her. Her, yeah..." he sighed to himself as he remembered the image. Cloud could feel Aeris shuddering at his side. "Yeah, that babe is coming here. Gonna be our star attraction for many, many nights."  
"No surprise. Can you, however, tell me where she is now? You see, I have old business to finish up with her and her old manager. So, if I can be told of her whereabouts I'll find her, exchange pleasantries, a few phone calls, trade Desire here to the Don, and off I go. If that is not too much to ask?"  
Scotch looked at Cloud and smiled. "You are a funny guy, Sammy. Great to do business with you. Miss Lockheart is over yonder at the Mansion itself. I suspect she is getting...acquainted with the Don at this very minute. That bastard gets all the fun and entertainment firsthand."  
Cloud grumbled to himself and said, "So, just go there, act cool, and meet with her there."  
Scotch threw the bottle in the trash and pulled out another. "Yeah, shouldn't be too much trouble. Corneo uses women like a pair of underwear. Out with the old, in with the new. I'm sure Missy Desire here will keep him occupied. Oh! I almost forgot. Before you two head down that road, get fresh new clothes and make them impressionable. Especially you, babe. The Don wants his women as sexy as they make themselves without being too erotic. He likes it that way."  
"I bet," Aeris said to herself and followed Cloud out the door.Cloud had discarded the clothes Elmyra had given him and now clad himself out in a gray pinstripe suit with brilliant shiny black shoes. To match it, he bought a gray derby and placed it like a military beret on his head. To match the pimp look, he bought a silver cane with a red top on it. He looked around and found a stylish pair of silverish-blue sunglasses that attracted his attention. After checking himself out in the mirror, he walked to the register. This expensive outfit wiped out nearly half his account-- a whopping 5000 gil!  
Aeris came out in a stunningly gorgeous red strapless dress that cut off above her knees. She wore glistening red high heels that sparkled each way she turned. The dress was a bit low-cut, and when Cloud saw her he immediatley had the same feeling he felt back at her house. He walked over to her. "Aeris, you look extremely beautiful."  
She fiddled with his ear. "You look handsome yourself. Heheh, my little pimp."  
He began to grow a little flustered, as her face came to his. "Not now. Are you ready to go along with this?"  
"I...I don't know, but I'm going to do it anyway." She thought of something. "Your sword? Where did it go?" She looked him up and down. "Did you throw it away?"  
"Had to. Think about it, if I were to go in there with that big hulking thing on my back-- I'm surprised that bouncer let me in there with that sword on me-- they would immediately flush me out, and my whole plan is dead and gone."  
"Well, what if you just sliced them all to ribbons and that would be that?"  
He looked at her. "Y'know, for a pretty innocent girl like you, you're pretty morbid. Nah, if I did that then Corneo would probably have Tifa killed. They've no doubt told the Don I'm coming in with a new chick. It would be mass chaos."  
Aeris looked at him, lovingly. "You going to find another weapon then?"  
"Ah, don't worry about that. The fact now is that nothing is going to hamper this plan. It's foolproof."Don Corneo's Mansion.  
An elaborate, two-story mansion modeled after the famous Wutain architecture-- yet another reason Cloud thought to hate the situation he was in. Massive gong bells hung on each side of the mansion. The gates were intricately carved in the shapes of dragons, beautiful creatures they were and gleaming golden and red in the morning sun. The doors to the vast mansion were bronze and equally as shiny as the dragons.  
A large crowd of people roamed around the mansion seeking to find a way in, but to no avail. They kept getting pushed away from the burly muscleman guarding the dragon-etched gates, sending them cursing into the earth where they fell. The guardian of the gates turned to Cloud and Aeris and smiled. "Ah, you must be the splendent people Scotch was telling me about. In case you haven't noticed I'm Kotch, his brother. Don't we look alike?"  
Cloud curled his thumbs underneath his suit collar, and said, "Somewhat, I'm sorry, Kotch, but you are delaying a very important meeting me and this chicky-whicky right here have to partake, and quite frankly she's getting a little antsy."  
"Heh, she might be antsy, but she looks pretty tasty to me."  
Cloud nodded a knowingly look and put a hand on Kotch's shoulder. "Trust me, Kotch, hehehe she's very tasty. In more than one situation, if she's not upset. And, let me tell you, when she gets upset the whole world goes down the shithole."  
"H-How so?"  
"Oh, she can get really, really envious. If there's more than one busty female in the place, and she's feelin' like no one's paying attention to her, she can get pretty damn pissy. The Don doesn't have to worry about that, though, from what I heard. He should have fun with this one, even though she doesn't have much up top."  
Kotch nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but the her body fits that dress good."  
"Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. Aint no girl I've seen better. Plus, she's got it where it really counts, you know what I'm sayin', man." He nudged Kotch in the rib and both of them laughed slyly.   
Kotch then got himself under control and said, "Enter the Don's House, and help yourself to any chick you find up there."  
"Oh, you don't have to tell me twice."  
Kotch continued to laugh as Cloud walked away in disgust. Swiftly he opened the doors, and he and Aeris entered the elaborate hallway of the mansion. It was more of the same Wutain elements as on the outside, except there was a large pool in the center of the room with a dozen naked women frolicking around. Some henchmen of the Don's were massaging some of the women on fold-out chairs, mostly in provocative areas.  
He felt a tug on his shoulder and he looked to see a frown on Aeris's face. "Don't get any ideas now," she snapped into his ear.  
He laughed nervously, "O-Oh Aeris, what makes you think that's going to happen?"  
She shook her head and went on, "What was that talk about me being too...what was it?..oh yeah, 'she doesn't have much on top."  
He patted her on the shoulder. "Just go along with it."  
"Sammy! Pleasure to meet you again."  
They turned to see Scotch, his arm around a naked girl and his other hand clutching a vodka, strolling towards them. "I'm glad you're here. This is Violet. Violet, this is Desire and her pimp, Sammy. Why don't you two acquaint yourselves with Miss Lockheart by the pool while I escort Samuel over to the Don, okay? I'll call you three once the Don's finished with whatever girl he's fucking with right now."  
Violet kissed him passionately on the lips and took Aeris's arm. Going with Cloud's plan, she assumed the role of Missy Desire and swayed with Violet down the stony steps to the large pool of women. A brown-haired female that Cloud recognized immediately as Tifa stood up when they came over to her and started talking with them. Scotch put his arm around Cloud's shoulder and led him up the stairs to Mr. Corneo's office.  
"Violet, I had thought, was the perfect broad until now. I don't know, Sammy, Corneo's going to have a damn difficult choice to make."  
"Yeah, I'm having a difficult time, myself."  
Scotch laughed and handed him a cigarette, which Cloud accepted.  
Cries and pleasurable moans came from a closed bedroom, and an excited masculine voice urged the lighter voice onwards. Scotch knocked on the door. "Mr. Corneo, sir, Sammy is here and he's brought the third contestant."  
Cloud wished he had sword right now to embed it into the bastard's skull for this ludicrousness. He heard the sounds of a woman complaining, and seconds later the door opened and Don Corneo's pudgy face peeked out. "Ah, the pimp has arrived!" He came into the hallway, tightening his belt. A large blue orb hung on a golden necklace around his throat. "Sorry, you caught me in mid-climax, but I just had to get out here at once." He turned to the bedroom. "Tonight, honey, tonight. I promise! Anyway, Sammy Supremo! I have been waiting for this day for...oh..well I don't know, I've lost track of the days. They're all the same, ha!"  
Cloud twirled his cane. "Don't be sorry, be happy! The three hot bodies are down there right now, and I fancy that it'll take you years to pick the best one."  
"Ha! Spoken like a true pimp. Care for a nice taste of bourbon?"  
"Bring it on."  
"Excellent, come down with me to the bar." Both men followed the pompous, bloated scumbag to the bar overlooking the massive pool. Some of the henchmen had gotten a little more provocative in their activities, and Cloud tried to focus on his disguise. In the corner of his eye, he could see Aeris and Tifa talking amongst each other. What about he could not know. Scotch got out the alcohol, and Corneo stared at the women in the pool. Cloud noticed a funny-looking sword hanging above the refridgerator. It was dark purple, containing a very long blade, and it had a bronze handle. It looked extremely sharp and alluring to Cloud.  
"That's one hell of a sword there. I thought I had one hell of a sword, but that beats mine by a mile."  
Scotch smiled, and Corneo laughed heartily. "I love a man with a good sense of women and humor! Yeah, that is one hell of a sword. An original Wutain sword gathered after one of the great Wutain-Midgarian battles in the war. I stole it from a museum in Junon and brought it here. That thing, I bet you, cost 50,000 gil."  
"Shit, that's pretty good."  
"Not a single gil I had to pay!" He laughed heartilly at his own remark, and then pointed at the orb. "See this thing around my neck? Don't know what it is, but I found it while I was travelling the Yosuke River in Wutai. It was just floating along the water, and I thought that would be a great piece of merchandise. Lately, though, I've figured out that I don't like it as much. It's too heavy around my neck, and I feel this weird pulsing feeling every time I put it on. The girls like it, though, so that's the only reason I wear it everyday."  
"A weird...pulsing feeling, huh? Sure that aint something else, Don?"  
The bloated man guffawed wildly and threw his bottle at the wall. "I love it! I have never had so much fun in my whole life. Wonderful!  
"Ahem! Uh..say..where are my three candidates, by any chance?"  
Scotch put his bottle down and stood up. "I'll go fetch 'em, sir."  
"Spectacular!" Corneo cheered, while plastering himself in another bourbon. "C'mon, Sammy, let's go check them saucies out, huh!"  
Tifa, Aeris, and Violet-- who had managed to find a swimsuit for the moment-- were standing in a line by the pool ready to be inspected. The latter was extremely excited and kept on talking about all the cool stuff that she was going to do once she got picked. Tifa, on the other hand, seemed a bit intimidated by the whole process. Aeris was playing her part quietly and appropriately. Cloud was impressed.  
The henchmen and the other women lounging at the pool had vanished. Scotch was called in by his brother to look at something, and the former left Corneo and Cloud to tend to the picking. Corneo was ecstatic. He looked all three of them over several times, unable to make up his mind. "Damn, you've got me stumped, Sammy, they're all pretty. Which one should I pick?"  
Cloud twirled his cane onto his right shoulder. "Well, Don, I'm not supposed to encourage a vote...but, ah, if you ask me..my girl is the better of the three."  
He saw Tifa give him a questioning stare. Violet was off in another world.  
"You see, Don, take a good look at all of them in general terms. The one on your far right-- the one staring into space. Sure she has a hell of a body, but she probably couldn't hold a conversation with a brick. If you're thinking of settling momentarily down with someone, she..er..wouldn't be the best choice."  
"Ooh, nicely pointed out."  
"Now, look at the one on your far left."  
"Oh, I am!"  
"Yes, I know. They're big. Had a rendhevous with that myself a couple years ago," (he noticed briefly both Tifa and Aeris giving him appalled expressions) "anyway, let me tell you, Don, she may be good in bed but damn if her attitude aint a pain in the ass."  
"Whatever do you mean?"  
"I'm mean that she is a bitch almost 24/7. Constantly complaining about everyone and everything. You got to slap her a bunch of times before she will cooperate in any...activities. Then, once she's good and ready you're too damn tired to do anything. I was lucky to have one instance of energy to sustain me through that one night!"  
"Ah, Sammy! I wish I had a million of your kind. As a token of my gratitude, please accept this Wutai orb and a well-earned 20,000 gil."  
Corneo exchanged the gifts and strolled over to Aeris and started making love growls in his throat. Cloud looked at the orb and saw it to be something more-- it was a chunk of Materia, a specimen of the lightning magic to be exact. He mused to himself why Corneo had never realized that before.   
As he put it on and pocketed the gil, the front door slammed open and seven henchmen armed with swords led by Scotch stormed through the door. Violet shrieked and dove into the pool. Tifa and Aeris looked on in shock, and Corneo stood their blubbering. Only Cloud remained calm-- the time had come at last.  
"What is the meaning of this, Scotch?" Corneo blubbered, his jowls swaying back and forth.  
"Kotch brought up a record of all the men we have working in this business, and his name," he snarled pointing at Cloud, "is not one of them. He is a fake, and he just used this cover-up to get at you."  
A henchmen spoke up, "He's probably a member of AVALANCHE!"  
The others agreed and drew their swords.  
Corneo looked at Cloud, appalled. "Great Scot! An AVALANCHE on my property. How dare you deceive me, you bastard!"  
Cloud continued to remain calm, and he kept his cane on his shoulder. His sunglasses glimmered brightly in the room's light. "Well, now, sometimes I go by different names and don't list them. It's a common understanding."  
"Don't fuck with us, Sammy! You may have brought us a hot chick and all, but we're bringing you this!"  
On cue, a henchmen darted forward and three others followed. Cloud looked at them and waited for them to strike. One swung at his face, and he blocked it with his cane and then quickly blocked another aiming for his groin. The third henchmen jumped on the table and attempted to uppercut Cloud in the side. Cloud ducked it and swiftly rapped the cane across the man's jugular. Blood sprayed from the wound, and the goon fell on the floor, clutching his neck.  
One of the two henchmen suckerpunched Cloud in the face, and then the other kicked him in the chest. Cloud backed into the bar counter, and the two raised their swords to strike at his belly. He hopped over the counter, grabbed a bourbon bottle, and smashed it ontop of one of his attacker's heads. He saw a huge chunk of bottle embedded in the soft tissues of the goon's cranium and winced. He then leapt off the counter and got ready to attack.  
Scotch silently watched the battle and ordered the remaining three to attack as well. The last guard of the first wave brushed the glass off his clothes and hopped over the counter. Cloud threw away the cane and grabbed the purple sword. The goon stepped back away from the blade, and Cloud swung. He hit the counter, and the goon rushed to counterattack, successfully slicing Cloud's back. The pinstripe suit split in the back, and blood clotted against the undershirt.  
The other three goons entered the bar, and four swords clashed against each other. Cloud evaded all of the thrusts, and successfully slashed at one of the open stomachs. The goon went down, and Cloud hopped back over the counter, barely missing a blade. He cartwheeled over the goon clutching his neck and grabbed his sword. With two swords in hand, he swiped them both with lightning speed at a henchmen struggling to get over the counter. The blades sliced his back, and he cried in pain. The last two goons got out of the bar and prepared to impale Cloud's stomach. With quick reflexes, Cloud grabbed the dying goon he just slashed and used him as a sheild as the blades struck. Both of them sliced through the goon's stomach, and the dying goon let out a gurgling noise and hung limp in Cloud's grip. Cloud threw the dead body at the two nameless and sidestepped away.  
The goons pulled out their swords from the bloody stomach and chased Cloud down. Cloud ran up the stairs and somersaulted onto the railing. The first goon somersaulted and assaulted Cloud maniacally. Together, they danced on the narrow railing, their swords blocking each of their blows. The second goon ran along the second floor and attempted a surprise hit alongside the dueling men. Clang after clang of the swords maintained for several minutes as they scaled the entire second floor railing. Cloud saw an opening, then, sped up his attacks and then successfully sliced low and then high, and the goon fell legless and headless down into the pool. Cloud then somersaulted over the second goon's head and stabbed his heart. He fell limp at Cloud's feet.  
Corneo whimpered in a small corner, Violet screamed and ran out of the mansion, and Tifa and Aeris held one another unable to look at the death. Scotch grimaced, but then smiled. "You are quite an interesting foe, Sammy-- if that is your real name. You are deft at using and evading a sword, but can you evade a gun?" He pulled out a machine gun and fired chaos at the second floor.   
Bits and pieces of railing clouded his vision and he ducked to the floor, the bullets striking just above his body. A few managed to find their mark, and he winced as he felt warm blood trickle down his back and legs. Suddenly, he heard his time commence. The machine gun whined from lack of rounds, and Scotch cursed as he hastily reloaded.  
A shadow ran over him, and he looked to see Cloud jumping off the second floor-- a crazy spectacle. Scotch hastily reset the trigger and fired death at the man with two swords. Cloud deflected the heavy spray with quick arcs of his swords, hit the ground while deflecting, somersaulted into the air, sliced the gun hand with the goon's sword and impaled Scotch through the throat with his purple sword. The severed hand still clutching the gun fell on the floor, while Scotch's body hung suspended by Cloud's sword. The latter drew it out, and Scotch fell lifeless to the floor.  
Cloud threw the goon's sword away, grabbed Corneo by the collar, and brought the purple sword up to Corneo's neck. "Deceiving you, eh? Did a pretty damn good job, didn't I?"  
Corneo whimpered, "Did a fine job of murdering my hands, as well."  
Cloud smiled and slammed Corneo facefirst onto the tile. "All fine and dandy with me."  
"Yes, all fine and dandy, Cloud, and I thank you for saving me," Tifa said and she ran up to him and gave him a hug. "Now it's time to talk, Corneo."  
"T-Talk? W-W-What about?"  
Cloud looked at her puzzled. "Time to talk? No, Teef, it's time to chop off this bastard's head!" Corneo immediately wailed.  
"Not yet," Tifa said sternly, "first we have to pry information out of him. You may be wondering why I came here."  
"Yes, I'd like to know that." He brought Corneo to a sitting position and propped him up against the wall. "Stay there, fatass. What's been going on, Tifa?"  
"First things first, were you hurt after the fall. I was so scared and worried for you. Barret even was, too. And Jessie, she really was for some reason, and Biggs and Wedge, too."  
"I'm fine and well. Aeris helped me out."  
"Oh...really," she said as Aeris came up to them. "How well?"  
"Oh, let's not have that discussion," he said, "the point is I'm fine. What about you? That's the real information I need to know."  
"I'm fine, but I fear that Sector Seven is not. Corneo's hired hands were infiltrating my bar trying to find our hideout. They found it, but Barret and I got them before they could spill anything. A couple of days ago, I learned that the Don's goons had found this place out by the capture of Smithers."  
"Smithers was captured!"  
"And killed, " she added sadly. "He was such a nice man for letting us use the train even though we were the terrorists."  
"Because he hated ShinRa, plain and simple."  
"The goons and Don were, according to the guards, hired by ShinRa himself to ferret out our hideout."  
"That's right," Corneo spoke up with a little more courage under his belt. "ShinRa hired me, and Heidegger ordered me to send out the spies. They know, though, even if the exact hideout cannot get back to them, they know that Sector Seven is the place containing AVALANCHE. You chums, you are so fucking stupid! Your little buddies are going to die in a day or so-- I'm not too goof at tracking time."  
"What?" Cloud asked angrily. He grabbed and Corneo and placed his sword near Corneo's pants. "Talk, lech, or you'll never be able to bone someone again!"  
"Oh, Great Scot, alright, alright! Let's not be so hasty, here. I'll talk."  
"Then...talk, dummy," spoke Aeris for the first time.  
"Bah, Cloud! If only you'd made the chaos happen after I was done with her!" Corneo whined.  
Cloud picked up his sword and drove it at Corneo's face, missing it by centimeters. "Want me to hit you for real?"  
"N-N-N-N-N-"  
"Then talk!" Tifa yelled, her voice so venemous it made Cloud's skin crawl.  
"ShinRa's sending in an air platoon to kill every slum dweller in Sector Seven. After that, or sometime during it, he's sending the Turks in to blow up the Sector Seven support pillar. Boy...once that happens Sector Seven is done for. AVALANCHE is done for, except for you three, but I doubt that you three will succeed at anything. Hehehehe."  
Cloud let go of Corneo and started cursing to himself. Aeris came up to Corneo and asked sternly, "All right, pig, you listen to me! I've got something itching on my mind. If ShinRa wants to blow AVALANCHE away, and the only resolution he has to perform with is to blow up an entire sector, where are the brains in that? So far, three reactors including this potential one are going to be destroyed. What is he going to gain from this? What promising result can he expect from this? Talk, or..." Suddenly, she drew a staff from behind her and slammed it on the floor between his spread legs, inches away from his virility. "...you can kiss that goodbye."  
"Son of a bitch," Cloud said trance-like and in awe.  
Tifa could not reply.  
"H-H-Holy shit! Wh-Where did you get that?" Corneo stammered.  
"Found it in one of your rooms. Pretty cool-looking. Especially when I'm going to strike you with it."  
"Sh-Shit! Okay, I don't know a whole lot so cut me some slack."  
"That's apparant."  
"The guy is a fruitcake. What pleasure he gets from blowing a support structure is beyond my comprehension. I think the only thing he wants out of this whole deal is to see AVALANCHE burn. Which I accept, and I am thankful that the explosion will occur in Sector Seven and not Six. Thank whoever is up there in the heavens for that!"  
Aeris looked at him in disgust and walked over to Cloud. Tifa followed her. Cloud was holding his head, and still silently cursing to himself. Aeris put a cool hand on his neck ,and he perked up a bit. None of them noticed Corneo pull out a device.  
"Yep, you all are so fucking stupid. Turning your back on a madman. Before I pull this lever, I just want to say, I hope we meet again sometime. To hell with all of you!" Before Cloud could react, Corneo pulled the lever and the well-hidden trapdoor Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa stood over opened up and they fell into a great blackness. 


End file.
